Yokonamy One
by lucifael75
Summary: After a six year side trip to the future and an alternate universe Xander returns home with some gifts for humanity.
1. Chapter 1

**TITLE**: Yokonamy One

**SERIES**: Yokonamy

**AUTHOR**: Lucifael ()

**DISTRIBUTION**: Yokonamy Website, THP Site and Group

**DISCLAIMER**: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**SUMMARY**: After a six year side trip to the future and an alternate universe Xander returns home with some gifts for humanity. FEEDBACK: Read, Review and Rate please it is the life's blood of fan fiction and helps me to improve.

**CATEGORY**: Action/Adventure/Space

**RELATIONSHIPS**: X/Various and associated Canon Pairings.

**RATING**: FR15 (M)

**SPOILERS**: Season Five of Buffy, Four of Star Gate.

**WARNINGS**: Spoilers for the above, some sex and violence lots of tech talk.

**BETA**: Drake the Archr.

**NOTES**:

Xander disappeared before Lover's Walk, so no Fluking. No real set point that he went away. Most of the time-line is described slowly in the story itself.  
This story is somewhat like Blended in some respects but goes in a different direction than I was going to take that story. Blended failed on some aspects of storytelling and I'd like to think I can learn from that and fix it for this story. That's not to say that Blended is dead btw, just that I think this story is better already than Blended is: P All universes used here are AU. Just so you know. As for Buffy, Oz hangs around longer for obvious reasons. Not too sure about Star Gate and Angel as yet.

SIDEBAR NOTE: Most of the story was written in Google docs and using Google technology in one way or another. I've tried to make it as high tech as possible, even the creation of the documents ;). Later on I switched to Office 2010 beta for the much better proofing tools. Hopefully Google Docs will realise that they are missing a few important features. That s not to say I didn t love it all though, but I did miss my grammar check.  
Talking of Google Stuff here's my Google Profile; I think you can subscribe to my Buzz's from there as well. .com/profiles/Lucifael75 #

Also talking of Google, in the interests of playing with the technology that Google are offering these days I have created a site especially for this story via their Google Sites service. (.com/site/yokonamy/) is the site, not much there as yet, but I will post the stories up in various formats and other related materials as well as time passes.

**Yokonamy - Prologue **

**Sector 59458, Space**

A flashing light suddenly intersected the darkness of space as the hull of an enormous carrier ship swept majestically though the inky sea. Flashing running lights lit up the surrounding area and the landing lights of its numerous landing bays stretched out away into the distance. Running in convoy were several large vessels of various types like a flotilla of ducks and her ducklings swimming in an enormous pond. The gargantuan vessel seemed to go on for a long time before it finally passed view; in its wake several other much smaller craft floated behind tethered by a tractor beam. The craft was normally a hive of activity; hundreds of staff would scurry back and forth on its many decks and attend to the craft carried in its belly. Though not at that moment, at present there was one single person within several hundred light years of that vessel and he was sitting in the main deck of the carrier.

He had dark hair and eyes and sat with one leg cocked over the captain s chair and had an almost bored air about him, despite the fact that he was responsible for the first solo flight of such an important cargo. One did not normally move a carrier and an assortment of other ships single handed. It was not that he was a special pilot in particular, though he was rather good at what he did. No, it was purely about manpower. Awaiting the flotilla at a temporary outpost was a staff and, due to an administrational error, the ships were in an entirely different place. No one else was available to move the vessels to the right location so an almost insanely dangerous plan had been put in place to sneak the ships through normal space, at several times the speed of light none the less, to the new crew.

The man in charge was special though, but it had nothing to do with the fact he was the only one insane enough to be willing undertake the project. Despite the fact that he felt he owed the owner a large favour or ten. He was not from that time, or area of space. He was from another time, a time long past and an area of space that was virtually lost in the annuals of time.

His name was Xander Harris.

Smiling slightly, Xander fiddled with a control to adjust one of the industrial support vessels navigation arrays and thought back to how he had ended up in this time and place. The man he owed the favour to had saved his life when he first arrived and had looked out for him ever since. So doing any job for the man was a no brainer as far as Xander was concerned.

Xander paused in a navigational computation and thought hard for a moment. Had it only been seven short years since he had arrived scared, naked and alone - more alone than he had ever been in his life - on a cargo hauler's bridge scared out of his mind?

It had, and Xander had to admit that amazed him. It had at first seemed to him that his luck could not get any worse, then slowly with time, he had realised that in fact his luck had actually been damned amazing.

Falling through a dimensional anomaly, or as he would have called it before, funky portal, had dangers inherent. He had been lucky to only loose his clothing and dignity. Then to land on that bridge, the bridge of his now father figure Yokonamy, last name but no one ever called him anything but Yokonamy, had been amazingly lucky.

Xander had to wonder, given some of the people he had met since, why Yokonamy had taken to him so easily. It was almost as if the Powers-That-Be had finally taken pity on him and let him land on his feet for a change. Yokonamy had indeed taken him under his wing and it was not until much later that Xander had found that he was not a simple Cargo ship captain; he was in fact the owner of a huge fleet of ships and a ship building facility that served the local navy.

In other words, he was rich and very powerful and through his contacts had set up Xander in the new strange world in which he had landed.

The world in which he found himself was not too different from his own, at its most basic of course. There were people, some rich, some poor, some more powerful than others and some sneaky and underhanded just as he was used to from back home. The main difference at first was that no one knew Xander (Class Clown) Harris. He was able to become what he had the potential to be without any preconceived notions from those around him, and he flourished under that freedom. At first, he had a few problems with some basic concepts from that age, because he was FAR in the future from where he had been. Certain basic concepts that were expected of the younger generation in that age were far removed from where he had come from. In the end though, he had managed to kick his brain into touch and learn what he needed to.

Once he had the basics down then he came across the first major obstacle to fitting into the new age. Oddly enough, it was the dreaded Math. From the first few days on the cargo hauler n he had been fascinated by the thought of flying a ship, the freedom of movement that it brought to his imagination and the thought of commanding the sometimes massive ships just made his mind go wow. The trouble was to do, so he needed to be able to do some calculations that he just was not able to even get his mind around at all.

Yokonamy had saved him again. Seeing that his young charge yearned to be able to pilot he had spent no small amount of money to at first train him and then overcome his shortcomings with a major bit of surgery. Xander had his mind augmented with a specialist chip implanted into his brain which allowed him to be able to do a lot more than he had before. In fact, it boosted his IQ from bright into what in his old life would have been genius level. It was just above average in his new life. Mankind had travelled far in many ways from their humble beginnings.

Once that first surgery was complete, he had undergone some gene therapy to 'fix' the abnormalities that the doctors appeared to think he had. It was not that Xander had abnormalities; he was just cut from an earlier mould. Humanity had evolved to be tougher and more adaptable than in Xander's time and that was reflected in their DNA. Outwardly, there was very little change at first in him. Then after a few weeks his body changed to better deal with the rigors of space, his musculature became more dense and his reactions faster.

When Yokonamy decided that Xander was ready, he was put through the local academy. Thanks to the chip and the changes in his DNA Xander flew through the course easily, and in a single year he became a fully qualified pilot.

Which was just the beginning of his story from there he had started working for his 'father'. Yokonamy who had no children of his own had so taken to Xander he adopted him legally not long after Xander had left the academy. There was some favouritism there of course, but Xander and his adoptive father had both agreed that it would be better for Xander to work his way up in the business, and that entailed Xander acting almost as a freelance pilot. He took jobs, mostly from Yokonamy Industries, and carried them out with flair and a conscientious attention to detail that impressed everyone he worked with. Therefore, when the fleet movement job had come up Xander was fully qualified to do it. It was dangerous though, given the value of the items that he was moving from A to B but despite his father's misgivings Xander had explained his plan of action.

Most space flight was under taken in F-Space. Also known as Fold Space due to the way it worked to go faster than light and in the most basic sense, folding dimensions to lessen the distance from A to B. So using older Tachyon based FTL drives that had to be rush-fitted Xander would go through normal space, thus dodging most of the normal patrol routes for pirates and their ilk. It was at its heart a simple plan and had so far been highly effective. Most of the time pilots did not drop out of F-Space for anything other than full combat. Thus Xander did not even show up on any scanners unless they happened to drop out of F-Space within a short distance of him.

He was now only a few short hours away from his final destination and while it had been a very boring week s long journey, he was feeling smug about the whole thing. Thanks to him his father was able to fulfil a highly profitable contract, despite the administrative cock-up, and Xander had been the one to 'save the day' and do something good for his father's company all at the same time. It was a feather in his cap and would certainly look good on his resume when it came to completing other such jobs in the future.

The fact that he was moving trillions of credits worth of merchandise did give him a nasty chill, he had to admit. There were literally enough ships for an outpost colony including all the industrial ships required to run said outpost. Mining, trade cargo, fuel cargo and a host of other smaller ships were languishing in the carrier's bays, while the larger craft were electronically tethered to the neural interface that rested in Xander's own brain. It was actually becoming more than slightly painful which was why he was shifting some of the control to the carrier's shipboard computer to relieve the pressure of controlling so many ships all at the same time.

A soft chiming sound made him refocus his concentration from contemplating his current mission and times past and focusing on the present. His dark eyes flicked down to one of the computer screens hovering in mid-air just under his eye-line and mentally he shrugged. A small space anomaly was resting just off his course. In response, he tightened up the formation of his fleet and mentally moved on. It was nothing to worry about overly after all.

He sat back and crossed one leg over the other in the American style. This was one of the few things that made him stand out as being different. Most humans of that age crossed one leg rested over the other. He sat with the ankle resting on his knee, a small difference but one that marked him as hailing from else when in humanity's history.

As best he could tell, and it was not easy because the date system was different in this time, he was several thousand years in his future, and from what little history had survived from his time to this he was not even in the same universe. In this universe, Space had become a priority for the human race. They had not rested on their laurels and thinking 'to hell with it' they had innovated as was the way of the species, and had pressed on from the lunar landings and pushed on further into space, first Mars and then beyond their own solar system. All the while the space program became bigger and bigger and the ships more and more complex until finally, several hundred years later, FTL had been invented or - more accurately -discovered. A thousand years after F-Space had been found and from there the human race spread like crazy across the universe. Other species had of course been found, but oddly it was if humanity had been one of the first to really stretch their legs into the inky darkness of space, because many such races were not capable of space flight. The decision had been made to leave them alone for the most part. However, some had become either friends or enemies since.

Xander realised he was in a different universe shortly after his search for answers had begun after arriving. The biggest thing was that in his time humanity had not been very interested in space. Another was that this version of humanity seemed almost alone in the universe. Call him a conspiracy nut, but Xander was sure that his own universe had dealings with other races before; he was sure of it. He had been willing to call it his own paranoia of course, but then he had also found no mention of demons at all, which struck him as odd. When he dug deeper he had found that the mentions of demonic forces existing in his own culture did not exist in this universe's culture. Nothing; there was no vampires, werewolves or anything like them.

That was when he was sure he was in a different universe; a parallel one in which humanity prioritised space and did not have demons.

Another soft chime again interrupted his ruminations and, once again, his eyes flicked down to the display. A frown crossed his features before he again tightened up his formation and added a course correction for good measure. He was about to go back to his thoughts when the chime again sounded, this time more urgently just before a much more insistent alarm blared through the carrier's bridge.

"Shit!" Xander commented, as the space anomaly suddenly seemed to veer towards him with no warning. He barely had time to blink before suddenly the ship's bridge was alive with the sound of blaring alarms and the view screen was full of a strange rippling pulsing energy field.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One Seven Oaks Graveyard, Sunnydale - Day

Willow Rosenburg, tears flowing down her face and with red eyes, looked down at the granite gravestone. Her gaze traced the inscription with sadness leaking from every pore. She couldn't clearly remember a time when Xander hadn't been a part of her life. They had met at Kindergarten when they were very young and ever since the famous Yellow Crayon incident they had been friends.

At one time she would have liked nothing more than to have extended that friendship in other directions, perhaps right up until the moment of his disappearance in that damn magical portal, she would have gladly given herself to him both mind and body, even though at the time she had a boyfriend, Oz. Oz had been a rock to her since then giving her strength to go on and now she wouldn't know how to carry on without him around - not when there was no Xander around to help her.

She glanced back over her should to see Oz standing stoically showing no sign of emotion either way about her grief. Then she caught his eye and saw the pain there, the shared pain and understanding he had for her. She had to admit she loved her boyfriend. Further back standing with her face shrouded by her hair was Cordelia looking fabulous as always, until you caught sight of the stunned look in her eyes. She was back from LA just for the day to visit Xander's grave - something she had done every year since he had left.

Not far from her were Buffy and Giles. The man held the young blonde slayer in a comforting embrace. Buffy blamed herself for the loss of Xander and, if she were one hundred percent honest with herself, Willow did somewhat as well. If not for Buffy then Xander would not have been there fighting the mage that dreadful night in this very cemetery. He would not have been thrown away from the mage during a powerful spell and never gone through that damn portal in the first place. So, yes, Willow did hold Buffy partially to blame for Xander going away, it was true. Not that she ever really showed it to anyone - or at least she hoped she did not. Giles also felt some measure of blame Willow was sure; had he been faster he would have caught Xander before he had taken a header into the portal, but oddly Willow could rustle up no blame for him, not when he was so hard on himself for his imagined slight against the young man. No, in some ways Giles had taken it harder than any of them, apart from Willow herself.

They had waited for six months before eventually concluding that Xander was not coming back; which may seem like such a short time, but Buffy had 'talked' to that mage for several days about the portal and the news had not been good. He had been planning on summoning a mid-level demon to attack Buffy, and the portal was directly into the dimension known as hell itself.

They only knew one person who had come back from Hell, and he was in LA helping others. Angel. They had talked to him about how he had come back, but of course the vampire had not known exactly how he had; did not truly remember any real details. They concluded that a simple human, no matter how noble or heroic could not come back from hell unaided; not without a miracle on his side.

After the six months were up they realised that no miracle was forthcoming and given in to the Harris' desire to let their son rest in peace. They had since upped sticks and left the Hellmouth, sober oddly enough. The death of their only child had somehow done something nothing else had, and that was to pierce the haze of alcohol and denial and show them that the town was just wrong.

Willow felt another wave of sadness wash over her and looked back to the grave with tears streaming down her face. She had to wonder why it had been Xander of all people to be taken from them in such a way. They had lost Jessie early on, and while it hurt losing Miss Calendar it had been worse when Angel became Angelus; awful for all involved - especially Miss Calendar. It seemed that not a year had gone by without someone being taken from them. Every year or so Apocalypse watch was on them. Just before Xander had been taken it had been Angelus, then the Mayor had turned out to be a demon worshipping mage who had wanted to ascend to demon hood, and then finally last year - their first year of college - it had been a demon/ man hybrid called Adam. They had coped of course, but at the same time it had been strange fighting evil without Xander there to be at their heart. Xander had seemed to be immune from the terrors of the night. Until, of course, he wasn't there anymore.

Willow turned to her boyfriend and saw the question in his eyes. Was it time to leave? She nodded that it was, and she was folded into his arms and led away from the gravesite and to her friends.

Behind her the granite slab stood testament to the Life of Xander.

Unknown Sector - Space

The snap-sizzle of damaged electronics was the first conscious thing Xander registered as he became conscious. Then his eyes opened as he rolled on to his back and let out a cough. Almost automatically he snapped his fingers and was immediately surrounded by a corona of golden energy as the ship wide and on-board Nanites flew into action around him and glowed with energy as they knitted a variety of small injuries back together and healed his minor cuts and bruises from the outside. Then when they were finished with him and after a scan for anything more serious they turned their attention to the ship itself. All over the mighty vessel glowing energy seemed to coalesce over damaged equipment and bound damaged metal back together as the miraculous tiny machines set to work.

Xander pulled himself to his feet and looked around. "Computer" he said, bringing the mighty vessel's computer into interactive mode, "Full systems check here and then on the fleet." He sat back in the command chair and wiped some grime off of his face with his hand. It always amazed him when something happened how half the crap on the entire ship seemed to attach itself to his face and hands. "Also", he thought, "where the hell are we?" Looking out the front view screen and noticing immediately that he was quite obviously not where he was before. The stars were different and the class G gas giant they had been passing at the time was gone from sight.

Spatial anomalies were not unknown to humanity of course, and some seemed to be naturally occurring wormholes that could take someone just about anywhere. A few had been charted in the early days of space flight and the more stable of them had been use to cut time off a journey. Most of the time, though, these anomalies were more dangerous than they were helpful, but Xander was ever optimistic and hoped that he hadn't been sent too far off course.

If he was, he could always fire up the F-Space drives on the vessels and put them back on course, but that held inherent dangers considering he was flying solo with trillions of credits worth of fleet.

"Working " came the melodic voice of the computer. Xander flashed a smile; the voice was female and, he had to say, sounded more than a little sexy. He had always wanted to meet the person behind that voice, and had eventually done so at one party Yokonamy his father had held. Of course she was over eighty years old by that point, still looking good considering how long lived humans were by that point in their history, but Xander was 26 and that was an age gap he wasn't interested in navigating at all. Still it always caused him to smile when he thought about it.

"Location unknown." the computer told him. "Charting relative position in space is impossible due to no F-Space buoys being found."

This caused Xander's brow to crease into a frown. "Use the stars." he commanded, looking almost accusingly at the space in front of him. He would have to be hellishly off course for the computer to be unable to find a single buoy within range.

"Unable to comply, no known stars found." was the worrying response from the computer.

Xander gulped. "Scan space to the fullest extent of the scanners and find me something to navigate by, or planets that can support life, just - find me something."

Working: Damage reports are coming in from the fleet. There is minor damage across the board, one ship missing, Yokonamy Alpha Five Nine.

Xander frowned. That he'd lost a damn ship wouldn't go down well, which was ignoring the fact he had no damn idea where the hell he was at that time. The stated ship wasn't one of the more important ships but it had been carrying a full load of F-Space Engine Fuel worth a few hundred thousand credits by itself, but the cargo tug itself was worth almost as much by itself. It was one of the larger vessels tethered to the carrier and there seemed to be no reason for it, especially when not one of the other vessels were reported as missing.

"Shit" was all he could come up with to say on that matter. He got up from his seat and began pacing the bridge from one end of the room to the other, ignoring the buzzing sound of the Nanites at work around the area but noticing that they were doing what they were supposed to be all the same. "Shit" he repeated. This, as situations went, was more than slightly untenable.

"One planet found in the current sector that appears to be supporting life" the computer said, cutting into his thoughts of doom and gloom.

"Show me." Xander commanded.

The view screen swam slightly with image lag, a sign of the damage to ships systems, and then focused.

"Oh my god" Xander breathed, his entire body seeming to go limp and making him fall into a nearby chair.

"Planet is surrounded by unsophisticated satellites and other debris. The atmosphere is capable of supporting humans and appears to have significant areas of pollutions making it to appear to be an industrial age civilization or just after."

"No shit!" Xander intoned gravely, his eyes wide in shock.

"Designation from scanning frequencies appears to be

"Earth," Xander cut in. Then his eyes became hard, "What's the date?"

"Unable to calculate given usual parameters, the computer intoned.

"Right" Xander said moving from his seat back to his command seat and bringing up the command console. "Using Xander - Alpha one," He told the computer, "use this equation to work out the current date using those parameters."

"Working, Complete"

"Then when are we?" Xander asked with a little amusement.

"Using your parameters the date appears to be 31st March 2000."

Xander slumped in his seat. "Using the parameters set what was the date from when we left."

"13th July 10010" the computer said, and into the loud silence that followed that statement it chirruped and said, "We appear to have travelled in time."

"Wow, thanks for that." Xander said sarcastically - knowing full well it would be totally lost of the computer. It was an AI, but due to a problem a long time ago by its reckoning there had been an uprising against fully cognizant AI's, the upshot of which was that AI's were fairly limited compared to what they could conceivably be. In other words sarcasm was not something they could cope with.

"You are most welcome, Commander."

Xander rolled his eyes and straightened in his seat. "There is a network on that planet called the Internet. I want you to break any encryption and download the lot into your memory core. Correlate anything you can find on the words Demon, Vampire and Magic. Let me have a report when you're done."

"Working, Whilst the computer worked Xander turned his attention to other matters. He had a horrible, or perhaps wonderful, idea of exactly where he was, but no idea WHY that would be, though he had a suspicion about that as well. The exact details of why were lost to him. It seemed almost cruel to set him up somewhere he was loved and appreciated only to take it away a few mere years later. The aim of that was a total mystery to Xander. Then again from what he had read the PTB rarely made sense to mere mortals.

If he was right about the words he had fed into the computer to correlate then it was possible he was back at home. It could of course be yet another alternate dimension, but something told Xander in the depths of his soul that he was home again. He wasn't entirely sure if he was happy about it, or sad. On one hand he would see his friends again, but from the date they would think him two years dead. On the other he wouldn't see any of his new family and friends again and that was something worthy of sadness to Xander because he had felt truly loved by a family for the first time in his life there.

If he was right though, the computer would find mentions of the key words, which is something that he had not been able to in the 'future alternate dimension'.

In truth he was starting to get confused just thinking about it and that was with his enhanced mind.

"Report is complete" the computer said, saving him from any more of a brain ache than he already had.

"Show me," Xander commanded and looked intently at the holographic screen that popped up into life before his eyes. After a few minutes of reading he nodded. "Look up Sunnydale, Slayer and Watchers Council next."

"Working, Complete"

"That was fast."

"The delay before was caused by a data transfer bottleneck caused by the ancient equipment being used."

"Whatever." Xander said, though he could swear he noted a certain smugness about the way the computer had said that. "Show me what you have found."

Another pause and then a sigh, and then oddly a large smile, I think I'm home." He said to no one in particular.

Solar System Close To Earth - Space

Several hours later in a fully repaired bridge Xander walked away from the resequencer with a plate full of food and looked at the scrolling displays that followed him around as he walked. They were green across the board with repairs having been carried out on most of the fleet to his satisfaction, meaning that he had a fully operational fleet at his command. Oddly, it struck him as a heady feeling all of a sudden, knowing that he had the pinnacle of year 10010 human technology that outstripped the earths tech by many thousands of years at his beck and call. It was almost scary, if not for the fact that he was pretty much used to it by that point.

He walked over to the command chair eating and reading as he went, and just as he was about to sit down he paused. What the hell was he going to do? He had all that technology, the thing he had just got his food from could cure world hunger. It took what amounted to goop and turned it into any sort of food one had programmed into it. The goop itself was easily made by another little machine that took one thing, even waste and made them it into the goop. Xander honestly had no clue what its real name was, and passed it to the resequencer to make food, or nearly anything else. The resequencer itself was capable of making much more than food; just about anything that could be described by a molecule program could be recreated by it from the source - goop.

Xander made a mental note to find out the name later.

He could just hand it over to the Government, but he had a feeling that would not be the best idea he had ever had in the world. Various food companies would go broke in a second and the economy would crash like a rocket. That was just the resequencer, and it was one of the less interesting toys he had at his disposal. In his hands he had the power to end life as he knew it on the planet. There were various weapons on the carrier itself that could turn the planet's surface to glass.

Xander sat down heavily and put his food down to one side. Suddenly he wasn't feeling all that hungry anymore. What the hell was he to do? If he was indeed back at home what he was going to do about the fleet. By sheer chance they had come out of the anomaly the other side of a planet, about two systems over from Earth. Well away from where he could be seen, but easily within scanner range for him. So he was safe from discovery, but he had to decide what to do.

He wanted to go and see his friends, that much was certain. Given the fact there was no sign of any anomalies that could get him back home he was essentially stuck there with the fleet.

Why? That was a good question. When he had been taken away from home he had ended up naked and alone, not even his clothes had made it through the journey with him, but somehow this time he had ended up with the fleet almost in its entirety. There had to be a reason for that, didn't there?

Yet again he had no idea what that reason was and suspected he wouldn't figure that out for some time to come either. He hoped it had something to do with helping humanity though. How was another good question? It was obvious he couldn't just drop all the technology onto them; that would be both disastrous and pointless since it was unlikely that current techies could reverse engineer the tech successfully.

He could certainly protect the earth, given how powerful most of the ships were. He was fairly certain that he could do that. If the need arose, demons appeared to exist given the amount of information on the net he had researched earlier with the computer's help. He wasn't actually sure what good the fleet could be there though. It was true that he had space to ground capabilities but they were along the lines of turning the ground to slag. Not something he wanted to unleash on his home planet, to say the least. He did however have some resources he could take advantage of there.

He was surrounded by a rich asteroid field. He had several mining barges and no 'predators' around that would prey on them. He could use what he mined to set up a base of operations either on one of the planets or a small station closer to earth. Nothing to the size of a full outpost but he had everything he needed to look after a full outpost and the asteroid field, from scans of it, had everything else he would need.

Which was just another indicator that there was a higher power at work here that wanted something from him. There was just no way that Xander was that lucky, in his opinion.

He was just sad that his father figure would never realise what had happened to him. It was most likely that he would just assume that something had occurred during the journey and hold a ceremony for him, writing the fleet off to the insurance agents and, while he would lose some money, he wouldn't lose it all. The contract would likely be safe as well, given that pirates and other factions would kill for the resources, it would be understood what had happened was unavoidable. That said, Xander would miss Yokonamy dearly and wished he could have said goodbye at least.

Of course if this turned out not to be his home dimension he would do everything in his power to return.

Until he found out otherwise, however, he had decided to conclude that yes, he was indeed home and it was time to put down some roots. He had a spot picked out just outside the Sol system for a base of operations which would be perfect for protecting the area. It was in fact where he was at that moment, which was more power to his PTB theory in fact. He just had to start production of a few things and then he would decide on his next step.

The first part of that would be to go out and map the asteroid field himself in order to program the auto pilot for the mining barges and find out in detail just exactly what resources the asteroids held. He knew there was a fair bit of most common, and a few other more exotic, ores out there in the field. Some of these could be processed into alloys that he could use for construction.

He just needed to know amounts and which asteroids to start with. Then it would take a good day or so using the high resolution Astrogeology scanners aboard the mining barges. The carrier's scanners could help map out routes, but he would have to run one of his custom made programs for that. With that in mind he reached out and tapped one of the floating screens and set it to work. Then he refocused on of the viewers to the landing bays and selected a mining barge which he then started to prepare for flight. The small robotic landing bay assistants would then un-secure it from its long term storage and make it ready for him to get into in a few short minutes.

While they did that he checked himself over seeing if he had forgotten anything, but since he was already in his flight suit there wasn't all that much to check. He still had his lucky charm, the medallion he had earned by passing out of the academy and kept with him just about all of the time. Blaster on his hip just in case and transmat translocator around his neck in times of trouble, i.e. the mining barge decided to explode around him or something.

The transmat system had a good range on it - in fact about the size of a small solar system - so he was safe in the asteroid field just as long as he had enough time to trigger the device at his neck. In his piloting career there had been a few close calls and thus far he had always gotten out alive. Mining barges also had amazing shielding and armour plating up to the maximum so they could survive long enough to call for help if they were attacked by anything short of a cruiser class vessel.

Happy that he was ready, a quick glance showed that the mining barge was ready so he used the internal transmat to relocate to the mining barge's much more cramped bridge and started take off procedures.

It was the work of a short minute to fully clear through the disembarkation procedures and then he was out in the inky blackness of space and heading, at a somewhat lumbering speed, towards the nearest entrance of the asteroid field. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 02**

"Welcome back Commander," the computer intoned just as soon as Xander had finished materialising on the bridge of the carrier.

"Wow, that was the most boring thing I've done in a while," Xander commented, "and thanks." he added, almost as an afterthought. Not even Yokonamy had managed to totally drum out of Xander the urge to respond to the politeness programming on a computer.

Xander couldn't quite get over the fact that they were almost cognizant. Not truly, but almost. So he played it safe and was almost as polite to them as they were to him.

"The mining barges you ordered made ready are now available for work sir."

"Good. Set them to work and keep me updated. It's pretty gnarly in there."

There was a chirrup that signalled the computer had gotten the point of what he had said - if not its entirety - and then a display sprang into action in a 360 degree rotation around him. Each section held different information, and Xander paged through them with small movements of his hands. Everything seemed to be ship shape and Bristol fashion - whatever that meant. He wasn't sure but he was sure he had gotten that from the other father figure in his life - Giles.

Which brought to mind the other thing he had to do, he had to go down to Earth and try to make contact with his old friends. Assuming he was indeed back in his own dimension he had a few problems. Firstly they probably thought he was dead, he would given how he had left.

Then there was the fact that it was likely he was declared dead officially, which of course meant that he had no bank accounts or ID or anything of that sort. That part wasn't so bad; he could set the Carrier's ship board computer to hack just about any system on the face of Earth with no problems whatsoever. There wasn't anything down there that he and the computer couldn't beat hands down. So he could insert himself into the system and get himself new ID that way. Money would be an issue of course. That said if he waited for a short while he could just take down any hunks of gold or gems turned up by the mining barges to sell. It would take about two hours for the first shipment to arrive and he could just pick through it before sending it on to be reprocessed.

First things first, he had spotted something during his recon that would be better than the normal star base idea he had thought of earlier. There was a giant asteroid near the centre of the field that damn near could be called a planetoid, and due to the odd rotation of the field itself, was stable and didn't move around. According to his scans it was mostly hollow which would allow him to create and secure an entrance. If he made the entrance big enough he would be able to fit in just about anything, up to and including the carrier itself, which would hide everything away from prying eyes.

He wasn't too worried about anything Earth had, but if he was right and there was a reason to protect Earth from any aliens, then they could have the technology to detect him. The surface of the big asteroid was made of something that was giving even his sensors a hard time and that was saying something! He tasked the launching bay with getting a few of the specialised construction craft ready to roll out at a moment's notice. Then sat down and started to go through a detailed analysis of the asteroid in question. He needed to find somewhere to place an entrance that wouldn't make the entire thing fall in on itself.

**Carrier Hanger Bay - Space**

Xander sat behind the controls of one of the smaller fighter craft with a nervous twitch just starting below his eye. He couldn't believe how nervous he was. A few things were adding to his stress levels at that point.

He still wasn't entirely sure this was his universe for one thing, though most of the research he had undertaken had borne out the theory. Xander Harris was dead, Rupert Giles was alive and in Sunnydale, Ca. It was the same for Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg, both now at the University campus in Sunnydale. So he was fairly sure he was in the right dimension at least.

The trouble was that while he now had some ID waiting for him on the planet he was essentially dead to the old gang, and he had no idea how they were going to take the fact that he wasn't. The usual response of the gang to such things was to slay first and ask questions later. If that happened he obviously could get out alive, but him disappearing in a swirl of green lights was unlikely to buy him any points with the gang. He was also unsure who he should contact first; his heart led him towards Willow; his head towards Giles.

Willow was his oldest friend and he wanted to see her so badly he could almost smell the perfume she used to wear in the air. The trouble was he was sure she would not react well to seeing him up and about considering the fact he had disappeared into a portal a couple of years before.

Giles would seem the better choice, he was likely to use his mind first and foremost, so approaching him during the day was almost a given there. With travel time and given the position of the planets rotation Xander should arrive during the day time, the trouble was he was likely to arrive rather early in the morning and that was if he didn't exactly rush. His small craft was FTL capable for just this sort of thing, i.e. carrier to planet drops, but it wasn't the fastest thing in the world. He could - if he so wished - use one of the faster fighters on board and be there within a couple of hours instead of nearly five. But if he did that he would arrive in the middle of the night and most likely - knowing his luck - during Buffy's patrol schedule.  
He could see that going down well: not.

Strangely the thought of approaching Buffy had not occurred to him at all. If he did he was fairly sure of the fight or fight response he would engender and that would not be good for his life expectancy. He had been in a fair few bar fights in his time on the less than salubrious stations he had visited and, given his new reaction times and build, had held a good accounting of himself.

He was by no means a match for a slayer though and he was sure that any vampire that came across him - other than a fledgling - would chow down like it was Christmas. Of course they would get a nasty case of indigestion due to all the Nanites floating around in his system, but it would definitely put a crimp on Xander's day.

Either way, he had to be careful; he had to approach things like the new Xander and not like the old Xander. The new Xander thought things through - most of the time - and then acted. The old just did it without thought and usually got damaged in the process. It was the entire reason that he had been sent to a different universe in the first place, and no matter how well it had worked out for him it was something he had sworn not to repeat.  
That said, at the end of the day there was a certain amount of leaping involved here, because until he had finally picked a person and talked to them he really couldn't totally imagine how they would react to anything - not accurately at least.

Xander engaged the powerful little ship's engines and lifted smoothly off the landing pad. The thrum of the power at his disposal was somehow more defined in a craft as small as the fighter. The engines were situated mere feet from him after all, and they rattled the deck plates even though he was essentially in a highly shielded and inertia protected bubble within the cockpit. Also the power he had at his finger tips on the carrier was immeasurably higher than a piddling little fighter craft, but it was all about the feel when it came to a craft that small.  
He turned on the small craft's built-in sensor foiling technology, cloaking device and then punched it out of the still opening launch bay door. He was a different Xander Harris now - but he wasn't THAT different.

**Sunnydale U Campus - Day**

Willow Rosenburg looked back over her shoulder as she walked through the University campus, feeling eyes on her but unable to place exactly where the feeling was coming from. Given that she had been helping to fight back the forces of darkness a few years now she had a fairly good danger sense, but this feeling wasn't like that. In fact she was getting quite the opposite sort of vibe to it. Oh, she was being watched alright, but she honestly didn't feel that the person doing so meant her any harm at all. No, it felt almost familiar but she couldn't place the presence at all. She'd felt it before though, of that much she was sure, but perhaps it had been some time ago or something.

She walked to the small campus coffee shop and sat down waiting for Oz to join her as they often did at that time of the morning, just after first class and when they had a free period together. It was a sort of ritual for them of late and she welcomed the normality of it, given that their lives were not like other people. Just being a girlfriend waiting on her boyfriend struck a note of normal in Willow that she rather liked. A chill went up her spine again causing her to turn around, but once more her efforts to catch someone looking were in vain. Other than a cute looking blonde girl who ducked her head shyly when Willows eyes swept over her, there didn't really appear to be anyone looking in her direction. Willow flashed the girl, who herself looked a little familiar, a smile and then went back to waiting for her boyfriend.

As she waited so did the watcher. Xander really wanted to go over and talk to her, he really did, but he was still undecided whether it was a good idea or not. Thus far his morning had been spent sorting out some ID for himself, (he was now Xander Yokonamy), and selling some of the gems he had picked from the mining barges. He had spent some time doing that last job as he had split up the gems between several different jewellers.

It had been hard enough telling them that they had been left to him by a rich uncle and providing the provenance for them in the first place. They were all quite high quality; if they realised that the gems were only some of the smaller ones he had already gained they would have a heart attack. Either way he was now several thousand dollars better off and was feeling some sense of normality about having an identity again and some cash in his pocket.

In fact he was tempted to go into the coffee shop right at that moment and get himself some of the precious beverage. He couldn't, not without risking being ousted too early to the gang and Willow in particular.

The trouble was he hadn't had a cup of coffee in seven years. It wasn't something that had survived to the future in that universe, and that was terrible in Xander's opinion. God, how he had dreamed of coffee, and now he could literally smell it, he was almost salivating.

Just then Oz arrived and looked around, damn near spotting Xander in the process, causing Xander to draw back into the crowds.

Willow looked up at her boyfriend and Xander felt a tiny pang of jealousy when she saw the look she gave Oz. It was the look she had given to him at one time, but then he had been too young and stupid to take her up on the offer inherent in her eyes back then.

Now he was older than her by the looks of things and while he wasn't that worried about that, he was worried about the thought of losing her as a friend. All of which was ignoring the fact that she was a) with Oz, and b) he was supposed to be dead.

He shook off those thoughts, putting them at the back of his mind he was just amazed at the emotions he was feeling at just seeing her again after all this time, and even Oz had brought a pang of emotion to his heart. He had missed them all so much - especially at first. He wondered if they had missed him, he sort of hoped that they had, but at the same time hoped that they had not. He didn't want them to be in the pain he had himself occasionally felt.

Willow and Oz left the Coffee shop at that point, both of them looking into the crowds - right at Xander at one point - but their eyes glanced off him without pause, so Xander knew he was safe from detection just yet. He really needed to make it under his terms after all. He waited several long minutes and then finally, when it got too much, he gave into his craving and quickly walked to the coffee shop and got a double Espresso to go.

He walked out of the shop and paused a moment to smell the aroma drifting up from the cup, then finally took a long sip. "Ohhh dear god that's goooooood." he said with a moan, loudly enough that he attracted some strange stares from passing students.

**Townhouse of Rupert Giles, Day**

Rupert Giles looked up as there was a knock at his door and a slight frown appeared on his brow. Buffy and Willow were sure to be in class at that time and Olivia was in Britain, and frankly he didn't get a lot of foot traffic in his apartment apart from those mentioned. He put his book to one side and cautiously approached his door, his back straightening when he caught that it was still light out. There was little that would walk around in the daylight that would attack him in his home.

Still he looked through his peep hole and saw the back of someone's head. They had Dark hair, quite tall, with broad shoulders from what he could tell. Reaching out to lay a hand on his 'door axe' Giles opened the door.

His face blanched of all colour as the stranger turned around and flashed an all too familiar lopsided smile at him. "Heya G-Man. Before you attack me - please notice its light out here and I'm fine. If you've got a cross or whatever hand it over, I m 100% human and all Xander right here." Xander winced. As opening lines went, that really sucked ass he was sure.

"Dear god, Xander!" Giles said, actually stepping forward and pulling the young man in for a manly hug.

Xander just lost it and hugged the elder man back, a tear rolling down his cheeks as his back was pounded and his ribs crushed, by the surprisingly strong man.

They hugged for several moments before Giles appeared to regain his wits and quickly stepped back into his home and looked at Xander suspiciously. "Hi," Xander said weakly. "I know you have questions and I'm sure you thought I was dead. But obviously I'm not, and I'll answer any questions you have for me, but we shouldn't do this on the doorstep."

Giles stepped back, no implicit invite given despite the daylight. Xander flashed an understanding smile and stepped into the darkness of the house only to be immediately pressed up against the now closed door with an axe against his throat. "Who are you?"

"I'm exactly who I appear to be G-man." Xander replied calmly, a slight smile on his face. He respected Giles for what he was doing oddly enough and was more certain than ever he had made the right decision in coming to him instead of Willow. "I'm unsure of how to prove that to you though, it's not like I have any ID of my old name since I'm declared dead and all." Xander said with a chuckle. He stopped chuckling when he looked into the cold eyes of Giles.

"Look, I came during the day so you would know I wasn't a vampire. I didn't attack you even though we both know I could have. I've got a pulse, soul and no demon. All of which I think you can check without any outside help. I can explain what happened to me after the portal and where I've been for the last two years by your reckoning."

"By my reckoning," Giles asked curiously. If he had indeed been in hell - which at that point seemed unlikely - time moved much more slowly.

"It's been about seven where I've been, which is why I look older than I should. Though I doubt the difference is all that obvious."

"So where have you been if not, as we thought, hell?"

"Not so much down there as," Xander jerked his head upwards.

"Heaven, Giles hazarded.

"God no, excuse the pun. No I've been in space believe it or not, and a long way from here. In fact best I can tell I was in the future and a different dimension to boot."

"That's ludicrous."

"More ludicrous than being in hell, Xander asked in amusement.

"Good Point," Giles said almost smiling.

"The good thing here is that I can prove at least part of my story." Xander said with a smile. Then he became serious, "Though it would require some measure of trust from you."

"How so"

"I can take you to a space ship," Xander said candidly. "But obviously you'd have to be willing to come with me for that. Hell, if you want and you have time I can take you to my actual ship - but the travel time for that is significantly longer than the five minutes it'll take me to walk to the fighter I used to come down to Earth."

"How would you get down to Earth without being spotted? Surely there would be military all over the place otherwise?"

"A Cloaking device, urh it makes the ship pretty much invisible and other tech that makes it so it can't be easily scanned and considering when I got that ship there is nothing on earth that can track it."

"So if I come to this - ship, I'm supposed to just believe you then?"

"I'd say it was a fair indication that I was telling the truth. If you still don't believe that it's a ship, that it's some sort of mock up I could always take you for a short spin to the moon and back."

"That would take hours."

"No, no it really wouldn't." Xander said with an almost feral grin on his face that reminded Giles rather disturbingly of Hyena boy.

**Just Outside Sunnydale, Day**

It had taken some doing but Xander had eventually convinced Giles to at least check out his story and he had led him to the wooded area nearby where he had parked his small vessel. Small by his standards but still the size of a truck by that ages standards.

"Believe me now?" Xander asked with a smirk as Giles' jaw dropped to the floor as the cloaking field dropped from the small fighter craft.

"I - it could be a trick." Giles said, flabbergasted.

"Touch it, climb aboard, or just poke it either way you'll see its real, but I can assure you it's not made of any alloy you'll recognise so it will feel a bit off to you but solid as a rock." Xander said with confidence. It was almost impossible to deny something when it was sat idling only a few feet away from you.

"Why now?"

"Hmm, Xander hummed in question.

"Why have you returned now?"

"I have no clue G-man. One minute I'm moving a fleet, and let me tell you there's one base commander who's going to be pissed off, and the next I find myself a solar system to the right of home." Xander paused, "Honestly it's just too easy. I suspect a higher power is involved; someone like the PTB or something like them has been at work here, because I know I wasn't in this reality - they had no demons or anything like. I know because I researched like crazy and eventually went looking for them. No way had I just missed them and no way they hid that well, no legends of vampires or anything existed there."

"Seems rather too coincidental doesn't it my boy."

Xander smiled at the acceptance in Giles' voice. It was hard to disprove his story given the whacking big space craft just in front of the elder man's nose, especially since he was hammering his hand on it to check it was truly solid.

"Convinced?"

"Provisionally"

"The provision," Xander asked.

"That you do nothing to make me suspicious."

"That's not all that fair G-Man. I'm bound to make you suspicious at some point - this is me we're talking about here." Xander said flashing Giles a grin.

To Giles the sense of humour alone was almost enough to convince him the space craft was just icing on the cake really. "Dear god, how do we tell the others?"

Xander shook his head, "I have no idea. I came to you because you're the most rational. I suspect Willow will cry, Buffy will hit me and Oz will just lift an eyebrow - if I'm lucky."


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 03 **_

_Leaving Earth Atmo - Day_

"Oh my GOD!"

Xander chuckled as Giles let out the curse from behind him. It hadn't taken all that long to persuade him to check out Xander's story. After all he needed Giles well and truly on his side, and showing him the fleet would pretty much do that. Especially once they came up close to the carrier, or not all that close really.

Giles had left a message saying he had popped out of town for something at his apartment so Buffy wouldn't worry, and was now sitting in the back of the fighter craft virtually losing his dinner by the sound of it. Though he was doing better than Xander had himself on his first real flight in a fighter, they were a bit leaner than other craft and the inertia dampener wasn't quite as squishy as one would find on larger craft.

So on occasion it did feel like your stomach was coming out of your ass, even though with the speed he was already going without the dampener Giles' stomach would be paste along with the rest of him on the back wall.

"Having fun back there?" Xander said the intercom making his voice carry as easily as Giles' had to him.

"You bastard" was the only reply and that barely heard over Xander's chuckles.

"Don't worry it'll even out when we head off into space proper," Xander said when he had gotten control over his laughter, though the occasional snicker could still be heard in his tone.

"I'm sure it will but tell me how did you convince me this was a good idea again?"

"You need to see the full proof before you'll truly trust me G-Man, and we both know it."

"Hmm," Giles hemmed.

"Come on we've got a five hour flight there and a two hour flight back, so we have plenty of time to catch up. So - is there anything you want to know in specific?"

"Why two hours back?"

"I figure I'll pick up one of the Ambassadors for the gang to join us on the next trip."

"A what," Giles asked wondering what Xander was talking about now.

"Oh, it's a class of ship, larger than this one and designed to be luxurious and speedy."

"Oh I see," Giles said, although it was obvious he wasn't sure he did.

"Basically I was tasked with bringing an entire outpost's fleet to them as the document peeps cocked up and the ships were in the wrong place. It's a dangerous job but I had a plan to pull it off so Yokonamy - my adoptive father - said yes. It saved him some compensation money and kept him the contract, though obviously that's not so sure now I'm back here. Either way, I've got everything a young outpost could need, including my baby, which is better shown than told. To put it mildly I have everything from this fighter all the way up to well - much bigger craft." 

"How would you move all of that alone?"

"Neural interface for one, and tethered to the biggest ship in which I was sitting."

"A neural interface," Giles said his brow creasing yet again.

"Yes. Basically I'm flying with my brain. Scared yet?"

"Somewhat, yes," Giles said with a smile.

Xander laughed again. "So anyway the Ambassador will be a much better idea for moving the entire gang - provided I'm not killed by them in the meantime. This is why I'm buttering you up with advance notice. I need you to help me convince them I'm not a demon in disguise."

"What if you are, I didn't actually check that," Giles said mentally kicking himself as he realised that small fact.

"I'd suggest you run that test in front of everyone. In the meantime, I think the fact I've not ejected you out the fighter buys me some leeway no?"

"You can do that?" Giles said, suddenly sounding worried.

"Of course I can." Xander said candidly. "There's nothing in this craft that isn't currently under my control. So you're as safe as a baby in a womb G-man. Never fear; I would rather hurt myself than you any day of the week."

Giles had to admit that was something that Xander would do, and it was something deep down in his gut, despite his usual rationality, that told him he was indeed talking to Xander. An elder slightly more controlled and somewhat more buff Xander albeit, but Xander all the same.

_En-Route to Xander's Carrier – Space_

Several hours later Giles was disturbed from a light nap by a voice sounding all around him. "Wakey, wakey G-Man" a light voice ordered him.

"Must you call me by that infernal nickname?"

"No, but I do so like to."

Giles let out a sigh and sat up in the somewhat uncomfortable chair. "Can I help you?"

"More that I can help you. If you look out the window to your left you'll be able to see my Baby just coming into view. It's hard to spot due to her colouring but if you run your eye-line from the asteroid field to the right straight you'll see a slightly cylindrical shape."

"Yes I see it, but what am I looking at?" Giles enquired.

"A Krakken Class Carrier ship, military grade and specifications, built to order by my father by his company over the period of a month. She's eight kilometres from bow to stern and about two wide at her widest point. We're still a long way out, which is why she looks so tiny."

"Dear God, it's immense."

"Oh yes, and deadly, she can pretty much hold off anything but a full scale military fleet by herself, and given that she's loaded with military fighter craft, if I had the pilots I could wage a war around here and likely win."

"That's a scary thought," Giles admitted.

"Luckily I'm on the good guys' side. Unluckily for the world I'm not about to just hand her over though. I thought about it I'll admit, but her tech in the wrong hands could wipe out Earth from orbit or at the very least crash the economy."

Giles thought for a moment and then nodded. He could actually see the sense in that, though he was somewhat surprised that Xander did. 

"I'm all for advancing humanity, and frankly I have a few ideas on how to do that, but I'm not stupid; in fact far from it thanks to Yokonamy."

"How so," Giles asked.

"Short answer brain surgery, longer answer is wet wired technology that acts as a secondary processor in my mind. It's bumped up my IQ a fair bit. I was having trouble with the math - again."

Giles chuckled slightly, and then looked thoughtful. "How much did it 'bump up your IQ'?"

"By today's standards quite a bit, by the standards of where I was, about average," Xander hedged slightly.

"That doesn't fully answer my question, does it?"

"It's not something I feel totally comfortable talking about to be honest G-man. In some ways I still feel like I cheated to get where I am, or rather was, despite the fact that it's common practice there."

"How much Xander," Giles pressed.

"I've got an IQ of 210, but that only sounds like a lot."

"It's higher than mine!"

"Higher than Willow's as well, which I'm sure she won't like much, but the genius' of that time had IQ's of over 310."

"Good lord!" 

"Quite." Xander said dryly. "IQ's are about percentages really. There's a much wider range of percentages there than there are here, because more people to measure. The way I understand it is that they range from about 80 to the highest which I heard was 400. He's obviously a very intelligent man, but oddly forgets to put on his shoes of a morning. I know this because he works for my father designing drive technology."

Giles laughed slightly. "We used to joke at Oxford that a high IQ correlated to lack of common sense in the real world. There was one professor who was awfully bright but seemed to have trouble with things like tying his laces or making sure a door was open before moving through it. We figured they were just thinking of things beyond normal people's ken."

Xander smiled and nodded, despite the fact that Giles probably couldn't see the movement. "Either way, let's keep this to ourselves. I suspect it will come up in conversation at some point, especially when they see me programming an autopilot or something."

"Why would that bring it out?"

"Look at the screen in front of you and I'll send you the current course in AutoLang."

There was a moment of silence and then, "Ahh, I see. That does appear to be rather maths intensive."

"That it is, and Willow in particular knows how bad at maths I used to be."

"I agree then. I will keep it quiet unless asked directly of course." 

"Fair enough," Xander agreed easily. He didn't really want to have to deal with Willow's insecurities about her intelligence. Despite being the brightest person in the room on average, she doubted herself quite a bit. This was something for which Xander fully blamed her parents for being absent all the time.

"Won't be long now, I'm starting final approach." 

"But we still seem so far off."

"The speed we're going it won't take us long."

"How fast are we going?"

"You sure you want to know?"

"Indeed I do."

"Right now I'm slowing down for final approach so just under the speed of light."

"Sweet Jesus," Giles said breathing a little faster at the thought.

"Here we go," Xander said with a grin, and turned his craft around on final approach vector, dodging asteroids as he went just for the hell of it, rather than taking the longer route that bypassed the asteroid field. "On your left is a mining barge at work." he said as a passing comment as the carrier began to loom up on them.

"Slow down maybe?" Giles said in a strange sounding voice.

Xander pulled back on the speed, killing it and coasting into the just open enough landing bay with a smirk on his face. "Sorry - force of habit."

"You bastard"

_Townhouse of Rupert Giles - Day_

"That's strange," Buffy said as she walked straight into Giles' apartment and looked around for the man himself. 

"What is?" Willow asked following her, neither really thinking of just how comfortable they were walking into someone else's apartment without a care.

"He's not here."

"That is strange. Giles is always here - oh there's a note." Willow said walking to the sideboard where Giles kept his phone and picking up the note.

"Ah, he is out of town for a book apparently. It was a last minute thing. He'll be back tomorrow. He asks you to patrol as normal but ring him if anything changes on your end."

"When does anything change on my end?" Buffy said slightly morosely.

Willow rolled her eyes, and looked around at the apartment, "Strange."

"What is?"

"Dunno; a familiar presence, but not Giles. I can kinda feel it in the air."

"Who," Buffy asked looking around cautiously.

"Not sure, I felt it before though - today in fact - when I was waiting for Oz at the Coffee shop on the campus."

"Good presence or bad?" Buffy asked in full slayer mode.

"Good - I think." Willow said waving a hand through the air as if searching out for a waft of a familiar scent.

"What are you doing?"

"Something I picked up at the latest Wicca meeting."

"I thought you had enough of that last year?"

"I did, just felt like doing something crafty - I mean, craft related."

"What does it do then?"

"Best I can tell?"

"Yeah," Buffy said with a shrug.

"Nothing," Willow said with a shrug.

_Hanger Bay, Carrier - Space_

Giles did everything but drop down to the deck plating and kiss it when he finally climbed out of the fighter craft. "You unmitigated bastard, you did that on purpose."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Xander replied with a smirk.

"That was not the way you land all the time surely?"

"Actually it kinda is; I'm well known for it."

"I can see why."

"Now, now - be nice. I got you here all nice and safe and sound didn't I?"

"That remains to be seen once I get to a toilet and make sure all my parts are intact."

"Dear God, I didn't need that mental image in my head." Xander muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing G-Man, nothing at all - So," Xander said with a sweeping motion of his hand to encompass the area around them, "What do you think."

Giles actually stopped to look around and he had to admit he was seriously impressed by the fact that the area they were in was only one of the landing bays, and it was enormous to his eyes. He could see several craft similar to the one he had just gotten off around him and a few that were slightly larger and significantly meaner looking. The sheer brute force he could see arrayed around him was humbling, especially given that this was only one of the hanger bays and apparently one of the smaller ones at that.

"Most of these craft are locked down for long term transport as you can imagine. I'll set the computer to getting an Ambassador ready for us shortly. But am I getting the point across yet?"

"That depends on the point you are trying to make."

"That I'm for real, that I really have been a long way away, and in a time not of this age?"

"Oh yes, that one - quite clearly received thank you." Giles said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Tsk, tsk, no need for sarcasm. Though there never NEEDS to be sarcasm it's just more fun that way."

"That's more like the Xander I know."

Xander laughed and pointed towards a far way doorway, "There's the elevator that will take us to the access hall for the elevator we need to use to get to the bridge. Normally I'd just transmat there, but I think you need to walk yourself out a bit."

"Aren't we rather a long way away to be walking?"

"The elevator will take us most of the way, the Bridge isn't that far from this bay. Besides I don't think you'd much like the transmat right now. It's like being sucked down a tube and spat out the other end spinning. I'm told that's ridiculous, that it's instantaneous, but I have a theory about the hell-mouth and its magic making us more aware of that sort of thing and I figure you don't want to be a Guinea pig to test that theory?"

"Urh no, I think a walk is just what the doctor ordered actually."

"As I thought," Xander said with a smirk.

They walked together across the landing bay and finally into the elevator which Xander put into action. "We're going pretty fast right now, but there is an inertial dampener in effect here as well. It's just a lot more powerful than the fighter's own."

"I can't even tell we're moving."

"Exactly, if you could I'd be worried; oh, and we'd be a pile of broken bones on the floor."

"Lovely."

Xander grinned and they waited in silence as an array of floors disappeared under their watchful eyes on the indicator. "Here we are." Xander said as the door way opened.

"Looks military actually, with dark tones, low lighting and no comforts," Giles said contemplatively.

"Like I said, she's a military vessel, but the quarters have some home comforts; the Commander's in particular."

"You're a Commander?"

"No, but while I'm moving the fleet I'm an honorary one so to speak. Only way I can be in control of the entire ship."

"So you hold no rank, except on this ship."

"And the others in the fleet yeah," Xander agreed.

"Interesting; your 'father' must trust you a great deal."

"Yes he does - did. I've been working with him for a while now don't forget - to me I've been gone seven years to your two. I've done a lot of jobs for him. There was nothing quite to this scale, but this isn't the first carrier I've moved for him, just the largest and no fleet before either of course."

"Is this the biggest ship he fields?" 

"He doesn't really field them, he just makes them, and no, it's not the biggest."

"Dear Lord what a thought. How big is the biggest?"

"One is a command carrier and it's about twice the size of this ship. But the largest is actually a civilian vessel, generational ship for explorers. That one is truly massive, has a small forest in the middle with gardens and stuff."

"How big exactly?"

"Not sure exactly, but city sized to put it mildly. After all, generations of people have to live and work on one. It takes years to make one of those. Never seen a finished one up close and personal, but seen the Exoskeleton of the latest commissioned just before I left for this mission actually." Xander paused. "It made me proud to be human to be honest. A demon couldn't build something that immense, not even dream of the final product when all you start with is two pieces of super alloy bolted together."

"That is true."

"Right, here we are, next elevator, this takes us all the way."

"How; The Bridge is at the top and centre correct?" 

"Basically, yeah," Xander said with a nod.

"We can't be close to the centre?"

"The elevators don't just go up and down here." Xander said with a smile. "Watch the display next time, you'll see the first number is floor, and then section is the second, with hallway as the final number. It's just that due to the sheer size of this beast we need more than a few elevators to service the entire thing. Plus, this particular elevator is designed to be secure due to the secure nature of the bridge, which is why it's on a separate network than the others." 

"That makes sense I suppose." 

"It'll be interesting actually to see who asks what when I bring the others up here." Xander said thoughtfully.

"Perhaps, I'm not sure I'll let you do that yet." Giles admitted candidly. 

"Still doubt me G-man?" 

"A little," Giles admitted.

"I hope that will change, but given what you've already seen I'm not sure what else I can do to convince you."

"Take me home shortly and submit to any testing I require."

"Computer," Xander called out, "Get an Ambassador Class ready for launch ASAP and bring it to the flight deck I just used." Xander paused, "There is something else you need to know - I'm not sure it'll turn up on your tests or not and that's why I should tell you upfront I think."

"Go on." Giles said as the elevator began its ascent.

"I had to undergo some DNA therapy. They thought I was defective because my DNA didn't quite match up to theirs in terms of some science stuff I'm not too sure about. Basically I'm stronger than I was, faster and, as you can tell, somewhat more buff. Humans in 10010 are somewhat tougher than they are in 2000. I required the therapy to be fully able to join the Academy. I won't go into details. All you need to know is that some of the things I have to do in the cockpit I wouldn't be able to do without the changes made. Nothing in normal flight mind you, but in combat - that's another thing entirely."

"Convenient. Now if anything strange turns up on my tests you could blame that."

"Actually, the truth is nothing about that should show up on any of your tests. If you think about it your tests will be mystical not physical. A blood test on the other hand could cause me some problems. I just wanted to be straight with you straight off the bat."

"Time will tell on your truthfulness." 

Xander shook his head and then smiled as the doorway to the bridge opened. "Welcome to the Bridge G-Man."


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 04 **_

_Just Outside Sunnydale – Day_

Several hours later, as the vessel touched the ground; Giles walked to the front of the ship and looked in on Xander with a slight smile, "I must say Xander that is really a much better way to travel."

"I told you it was a more luxurious transport than anything else."

"That food replication device is quite the marvel."

"And something else that's dangerous in the wrong hands if you think about it, and I have."

"Indeed the thought did cross my mind."

"So, we have a few hours before anyone is likely to be awake. Do you want to go home and crash or something?"

"Actually I got some rest on the way back. I feel quite refreshed in fact."

Xander nodded, "I'm not surprised. I've not had much chance to ride in one of these things, but the few times I have I've almost always fallen asleep. Even the pilots chair is more comfortable than I'm used to."

Giles laughed slightly, "Well what shall we do?"

"I haven't slept actually and could do with a few hours."

"You can of course use my spare room if you would prefer a bed?" Giles said with a canny look about him.

Xander noticed and smirked. "Plus you can keep an eye on me."

"Just until we've done those tests, my lad, and then I'll be 100% sure."

"I'll be glad of that." Xander admitted. "For now I would actually like a bed to sleep in." he added with a smile. "So I'll take you up on your gracious offer."

"Where are we?"

"Basically the same place as before, just in a larger clearing. Once again, luckily, the Ambassador class has the ability to use cloaks when smuggling dignitaries in and all that, so I can park it and forget it for a while."

"That sounds perfect then. Shall we do that?"

"Indeed we shall Mr G-man, indeed we shall." Xander said lightly mockingly.

_Townhouse of Rupert Giles - Day_

"Okay Giles, what's the big idea of getting me out of bed early on a Saturday. Find a killer new book while you were out of town or something?" Buffy said as she swanned into Giles' apartment with Willow and Oz bringing up the rear.

Giles turned towards her and smiled. "I'm glad you all could make it on such short notice." he commented wryly, He had been waiting for an hour for the buggers to turn up. 

"Look, this slayer isn't much into sarcasm at 10am on a Saturday, so let's cut to the chase and tell me what to kill already." Buffy said snarkily.

"Actually, until proven that the need exists I want you to resist that urge at the moment." Giles told her.

"So no apocalypse," Willow said, "If I'd known I'd have had another Latte"

"You bloody stopped for coffee?"

"Bring any for me?" a new voice called from the direction of Giles's ground floor spare bedroom.

They all turned to the strangely familiar voice and there was a sudden pall of silence over the entire room.

"Wow - tough room." Xander muttered to himself.

"Oh yes, very well done Xander."

"XANDER!?" Willow shrieked before fainting dead away.

"Oh shit." Xander said.

"Xander," Buffy said softly.

"Yes Buffy, it's really me."

"But - the portal"

"I know, and I'll explain but I would like to only do it once." Xander said pleasantly surprised that he wasn't pulverised by that point and that Buffy seemed to have curbed her slay first never question response.

Buffy nodded in a daze and moved over to join Oz in trying to rouse Willow.

For his part Oz was occasionally glancing at Xander with a slightly worried expression, which for Oz showed that he was really freaking out. Xander was slightly shocked, because of all the people he thought would be freaked about seeing him alive and well, he had never thought it would be the normally cool as cucumber werewolf.

They managed to bring Willow back with some hastily grabbed smelling salts and her eyes became fixed on Xander like searchlights. "Where the _hell_ have you been?" she demanded to know.

"Pardon," Xander asked shocked at the question. It wasn't actually so much the question as the way it was asked. 

Willow gave herself a shake and then said in a much calmer voice, "Where have you been Xander?"

"A different dimension, not hell, a different time - about 10010 in fact and in another place entirely." Xander answered simply. 

"How," Willow moved slowly towards him. 

"I'm not sure, but I have a few ideas on who has been pulling my strings of late."

"Go on," Buffy said from the side.

"Basically I think a higher power has been fucking with me to put it bluntly. The way I arrived there and the way I came to be here are just two examples."

"How do you mean Xander?" Buffy asked, as Willow edged almost timidly closer to Xander.

"I arrived there naked and scared. You saw the portal I went through. Then on my way back, which just happened to be an enormous spatial anomaly, I arrived intact with everything I had with me - with me. Does that strike you as strange at all? I arrived just where my adoptive father happened to be, who happened to be one of the most influential and powerful men in the entire quadrant of space I was in. Someone who had the resources to help me out, to get me trained for a job I wanted to do that just so happened to make sure I could arrive back here with a small fleet at my beck and call. Seem a little fishy at all?"

"It does when you put it like that." Giles smiled. Having had most of this conversation himself with Xander, he was well aware of the younger man's views on the subject.

Willow finally reached Xander, but before she could reach out and finally make contact, Giles cut in with, "Just a moment, please Willow. We need to make certain of a few things before we totally trust Xander."

Willow's hand pulled back as if she had been burned and a scared look entered her eyes. "Oh God, please let it be him." she breathed.

"I am," Xander insisted, "I am, but Giles is right. It's best to be sure."

"To that end I have readied some materials. If you wish you can help me to cast them Willow."

Willow nodded and moved away from Xander slowly, as if she didn't really want to be far from him, like he would up and disappear again if she wasn't watching.

Oz pulled her the rest of the way away from Xander and looked back with a definite 'She's mine' look about him. Xander just shook his head slightly. He had expected more from the wolf, he really had, but then Xander was now the more adult member of the group, excluding Giles himself of course.

Xander watched in silence as they prepared the spells they would need to make sure he was who he said he was, and human, had a soul and all that. Travelling alone for a long time during various missions had taught him the value of silence. He no longer felt the need to fill them, the first few long distance flights though had been somewhat amusing with him talking to himself, the stars or even the on board computer just to pass the time. But luckily that was a thing of the past. He was comfortable with himself enough now that he didn't feel that need any more. The fact that he wasn't jabbering seemed to be slightly worrying Willow, who kept shooting glances at him. 

Buffy was doing the same thing, but for a different reason. She looked almost relieved to see him, which pretty much shocked Xander. He had always had the impression that he annoyed Buffy more often than he did anyone else. She certainly had showed no interest in his attention, and had gone so far as to call him one of the girls. At the time he had been insulted and hurt by that; now he took it as a compliment. It meant that she felt 'safe' with him and that she trusted him not to be a typical male around her, and that was a good thing in retrospect. Of course at the time it had felt like a kick to the crotch.

"We're ready." Giles said for the group.

Xander stood with his arms outstretched and smiled. "Go for it."

"These tests will ascertain that you are human, and that you are in possession of a soul, that you are not being possessed and that you are not being controlled by some entity." 

"But not that I am who I say I am." Xander spotted the problem immediately.

"That is true. However, if you are willing there is a fool proof truth spell that we can use to ascertain that. We are currently thinking of questions that you will have to answer to our satisfaction."

"Ouch! But okay if that's what it takes."

"Then we shall begin."

Xander was then treated to a rather pretty light show as various spells were cast on him. At one point Giles brought a halt to the proceedings and said, "We've detected that there is something alien in your system, but it doesn't appear to be controlling you in any fashion."

Xander looked blank for a moment and then brightened. "That's the Nanites. I'm pretty much awash in the damn things. They are all over the vessels from where I've been."

Giles looked horrified, so Xander added "Don't worry, I instructed the computer to keep them away from anyone I bring unless I order otherwise. They're harmless, they really are, but I wasn't sure how they would react to the magic in your system. I was worried they would try to 'fix' the problem and cause even more problems that way. Of course they might do nothing to your magic - that's something I need to experiment with later on."

Giles nodded. It fitted the facts but was worthy of note; either way they went back to the spell casting with a nod from him.

"The tests are complete." Giles said some ten minutes of flashing lights and funny smells later. 

"And we have discovered...?" Xander said leadingly.

"You are, apart from the Nanites thingies, in the clear."

"Thank God. I was worried that working for the navy had stolen my soul." Xander said with a smirk.

"Very droll and now for the final test," Giles said firmly.

"Oh how I'm looking forward to this." Xander said with a groan.

"Something to fear Xander," Giles asked pointedly.

"Only some secrets coming out if you aren't all careful with your questioning." Xander replied with a smirk.

"We will endeavour to stick to our planned questions." 

Xander nodded, "So is it a spell or a potion or something?"

"A Spell, which we have already cast on you," Giles informed him.

"You should do a test question then, make me try to lie. Like they do for detector tests?"

"Good idea, very well what is your name and lie... or try to."

"It's not Xander Harris anymore, so that won't really do, will it."

"Who do you hate most? And lie."

"W...W...W... I can't."

"In truth," Giles asked curiously.

"Frank Kamaline, guy I met in the academy."

"I thought you were going to say Angel," Buffy admitted.

"I do hate Angel, just not all that much."

"Right, I think we have everything we need there to begin properly."

"What's the story of the yellow crayon?" Willow jumped in with her question first.

"In Kindergarten you broke your yellow crayon and were scared you would get into trouble. So I gave you mine and said I broke your old one."

"Is that true?" Giles asked.

Willow smiled and nodded.

"An obvious one," Oz put in, "Are you really Xander?"

"Yep," Xander said with a nod of his head.

"Xander Harris?"

"Nope, but then I did tell you I changed my name. In fact I even have ID with my new name." he said handing over his new wallet.

Buffy opened it and looked through to the new ID cards and frowned slightly, "Yokonamy what sort of name is that?"

"Sounds Japanese almost," Willow put forth.

"It's a perfectly good name. My adoptive father was called that and it could well be Japanese but cultural lines became blurred in that universe when everyone left Earth. So it's not that unusual to have so called foreign names on just about anyone, even my adoptive father, who appeared to be Germanic." Xander replied calmly.

"Still, it was a good question, but we have yet to cover anything we quickly discussed." Giles put in with some annoyance.

He was ignored though, as Buffy said, "When you were Hyena boy and you had me against a wall what did you say to me?"

"He said he didn't remember that, Buffy," Willow said leaping to Xander's defence.

"I said that I liked you afraid and that fear made you smell better." Xander said, though he was obviously trying not to say anything at all.

"Damn it Xander I KNEW you were lying about not being able to remember anything." Buffy retorted looking slightly angry and slightly amused all at the same time.

"I nearly raped one of my best friends. I just wanted to forget the shame."

Buffy's expression softened and she smiled at him. "You weren't in control at the time, I knew that."

"Well, I think that alone shows the spell was working. So the big question of the hour is can we trust you Xander?" 

"Yes, I am at the same time the same Xander you knew, and not."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've been gone six years, and as hard as this will be to hear, I grew up during that time. I'm not really quite the same any longer. I'm not a doughnut boy any more. I'm a man who has faced death in a variety of ways several times over the years, before my side trip to the future and since. I have at my command the power to turn the Earth to slag, and the wisdom not to use it. I'm going to do everything in my power to make this town a safe place and protect my friends, and I won't be put on the back burner again. I have both command and combat training thanks to the academy I was talking about, and experience since. I spent a year on Solitaries Navy protecting the frontier and lanes from Pirates, both in the sky and on land. On my hip I have the power to take out an entire vampire nest solo, and none of you have even realised it - let alone check me for weapons. I am a valuable resource and I expect to be treated as such. I love you all, every single one of you, and yes, that means you too Oz. But I won't be treated that way ever again."

Resounding silence met that but Xander smiled at them all. "I'm not exactly saying you were all horrible to me before, but I'm not a child and I don't expect to be treated like one. I can and will help. I think we need a demonstration at this point, yeah? It's the weekend so you can all be gone for a day or so right?"

Buffy cleared her throat, and then shook her head clear of the cobwebs before nodding. "Yeah, I'm free and clear apart from patrol."

"I will handle that with the help of Oz if he is willing. He can then be shown what you are to be shown at a later date." Giles said.

"Okay." Willow looked confused but willing to believe. Oz on the other hand looked a little rebellious at the idea of his girlfriend going off with Xander, but quickly realised that saying he had a problem with it would not be popular at that point.

"Okay." he said finally, not much of his inner rebellion showing in his tone or face.

"Then if you two ladies would like to follow me, and for this first part you and Oz can come too, Giles if you like?"

"We would," Giles said speaking for the two of them. He did after all know what was coming next.

"Then if you would follow me." Xander repeated and headed for the door.

_En-Route - Space_

After the initial shock had worn off the two women had revelled in the apparent luxury of the Ambassador Class craft. The plush soft seats and all the amenities it offered were lapped up to the extent that they hardly noticed the two hours the flight took. They had finally been brought around from their respective hedonistic pleasures when Xander's voice cut in to the room around them and the music they had playing. 

"If you'll look to the main viewscreen you will see we are approaching what will become my home base."

"Urh - whoopdeedoo, it's a big floating rock." Buffy commented looking at the largish looking chunk of rock floating in the view screen. 

"It might not look like much, but I found out on the flight that I've breached the outer layer and have some shots from inside of it. Fancy a look? Oh, and you can talk I'll be able to hear you." Xander added the last with a chuckle in his tone.

Buffy blushed slightly and Willow looked up from one of the terminals long enough to say "Yes please" then back at the display that was scrolling through some of the history of where Xander had been.

"There you go. Pretty isn't it."

Willow looked up and became speechless. "Oh my." she breathed. It was as Xander had said - pretty. What he had not realised on his first survey was the reason why his scans were having trouble. Apparently the asteroid was in fact more of a huge geode than an actual asteroid. Inside it was filled with immense crystals that stood like high rises thousands of feet high, some even bigger than that. Amongst them were smaller, but no less amazing crystals and in the centre there was a vast hollow that was just the right size of Xander's fleet and supporting station.

Buffy was looking at the crystals with a little hunger, "Are those diamonds?"

"Can't tell that yet, but I doubt it though they're pretty tricky to scan. They seem to soak up most forms of scanning. I was able to sneak a scan through a natural fault before, which I will seal later on. But they pretty much make scanning impossible. So it will make a perfect base and the geode itself is big enough, even with all the crystals to fit the entire fleet in, even the carrier herself."

There was a pause. "Do you like diamonds then Buffy?"

"A girl's best friend," she replied perkily.

"Would I be your best friend if I gave you a bag full of them?" Xander said with laughter in his voice.

"If you do that I'd sleep with you on the spot," Buffy said thinking he was joking.

"Oh baby, looks like I'm getting lucky because I have about three ton worth of diamonds on board the carrier already, though they are uncut at the moment. I'll have some cut and processed for you."

Buffy blushed again as Willow shot an 'old fashioned' look. "What would Riley say?" Willow asked accusingly.

"For that I'm not sure I care," Buffy said with a smirk. She was rather enjoying the look of outrage on Willow's face. "Anyway, Xander knows I'm kidding, right Xander?"

The only reply to that statement was slightly mocking laughter.

"Xander," Buffy pressed.

"And for my red haired bestest bud of all time I have some Emeralds. If memory serves they are your preferred gem?"

"You don't have to Xander..." Willow said though her eyes were lighting up like the proverbial.

"I know that, but I want to." Xander replied, "You'll have to be careful with them for now though, until I get some contacts set up, then you can have them set or shift them - the choice is yours."

"But Xander, that means you have a staggering amount of wealth available to you on your - urh - carrier" Willow suddenly realised.

"I know, but funnily enough I can't shift it all in one go for a few different reasons. One, people would want to know where the hell it was coming from, and of course I would likely crash the economy and/or end up with worthless gems. Luckily I've found a use for the gold and some of the other ores, or it would just be taking up space."

"You have gold as well!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Rather a lot of it. The mining barges had been busy and this is a rather rich field for that sort of thing; more power to the PTB theory if you ask me."

"How so," Willow asked, her viewscreen now forgotten.

"Think about it, I just happen to be dropped on a literal goldmine that has just about everything I need to build a station; even a whacking great big sensor-foiling geode? Way too coincidental if you ask me. I'll have the money I need for my plans on Earth and the right location for a station out here that is close enough to Earth that I can be there in no time to protect the planet. If I use some of the faster ships I can get to Earth in less than a minute. She may be big, but that carrier; hang on I'll show her to you." There was a pause and a long vessel covered in weaponry and flight decks appeared on the viewscreen. "Well she is one of the fastest classes of ships."

"Good God, look at the size of that thing!" Buffy said her eyes a little glazed at the continual shocks that were coming that day.

"Anyway, we're about to arrive, so, well, do nothing and we'll be there in a second and we can talk about this as we walk. I have some personal gifts there that I think you'll hate but it will put my mind to rest, and you can have a good look around."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 05 **_

_Aboard The Carrier – Space_

Buffy settled down on her surprisingly comfortable bed in her home away from home, the quarters that Xander had given her, and toyed with the other gift he had given her upon landing. It was a simple looking necklace that was placed around her neck in such a way that it could not be easily removed. It was apparently an emergency Transmat key. If she got into trouble and triggered it she would be wrenched from Earth and deposited on to the carrier.

It apparently did not yet have a name, though Xander was already thinking of some ideas. She just hoped he didn't call it the Scooby or something, or worse the Mystery Machine.

The day had been scarily abrupt in her opinion. Xander had appeared from nowhere and then suddenly he is in charge of a scary amount of fire power and rich as all hell to boot. The fact he was looking particularly nice was just the icing on the cake. Xander's loss had been her biggest failing to date, to her mind. His loss had been felt by them all in varying degrees in a way that not even Miss Calendar had even come close to engendering in anyone other than Giles.

Then, suddenly, he was back, as wise cracking as ever but with a more mature outlook. It was confusing and oddly exciting as well. It was as if someone had suddenly breathed the life back into the group dynamic. They had made more jokes with each other with him around in five minutes than they had the entire two years he had gone, or that was how it seemed. How could one person make so much of a difference? Even Willow was acting differently now. More confident than she had been since Xander had gone away, not leaning on Oz so much, and even Buffy had noticed that wasn't going down too well and that was only in a short amount of time. She could see that car wreck coming from a mile away.

She had always thought that Oz was a little possessive of Willow and that had only increased after Xander had gone away for some reason. She could see it getting worse now that Xander was back and that didn't bode well with Xander around; given the way he was now he would actually see it this time around and likely do something about it.

Buffy got off the soft bed to pace around the room; it was one of the higher command crews' quarters in fact so it was by no means small. Apparently the enlisted men's quarters were just about big enough to lie down in and they had bunk beds. She had a sneaking suspicion that Willow had even larger quarters and that Xander himself had already taken the commander's quarters. That was fine with her; this was way nicer than anything she had stayed in, with the exception of a few hotel rooms. She could already see putting some of her things around the place just to make it more homely.

Her eyes flicked over to the nightstand and a wide smile lit up her face. In the bag sitting innocently on the furniture was enough wealth to make her very comfortable for the rest of her life. Of course she couldn't just go out and spend this sort of money, nor was it really worth anything just yet.

Apparently Xander was setting up some sort of shell company specialised in mining to allow him to shift some of the surplus materials he had lying around. He had shown them the cargo holds in which all of the so called surplus stuff was being held. The amount of unprocessed gems and ore in that room was staggering. In fact Xander had recalled the mining ship-things so he didn't end up with too much of it all. Though he had said he was going to 'goop some' whatever the hell that meant.

Buffy hadn't asked, Willow of course had and was currently being shown all that side of things. Something to do with making anything into something that could be made into anything else. It was so far above Buffy's head it was unreal, but then again she had thought it would be above Xander's head too. Then again he had changed a lot and not just in the way he looked; though she had to admit she did very much like the way he looked now. Gone was the occasionally awkward young man and in his place was a powerful looking man. It was almost funny to think that Xander now had about 4 years on them all, with the exception of Giles of course.

_Carrier Bridge – Space_

Xander smiled at the look of amazement on Willow's face as he showed her the Resequencer in action. "Pretty cool isn't it? I also call it the 'Goop in Hamburger Out' machine."

"It's amazing. Do you realise what you have here?" Willow said, her eyes alight with amazement.

"Yeah I do." Xander said carefully. Willow had the look of someone with an idea they hadn't thought all the way through.

"This thing could cure the world's problems in one fowl swoop. It could end pollution, cure the world's hunger issues and end dumping of waste."

"It could indeed." Xander said still carefully hoping that Willow would actually see the problem herself rather than having to have it handed to her. This was the trouble with really smart people, he had to admit. They didn't think things through. They thought 'wow look at the shiny' and then didn't think 'oh dear it could wipe out all life on earth'. A bad example, but it made sense to Xander.

"You have to tell someone, hand it to the Government or something!"

"I could do that, yeah, but what would happen if I did? That is if they didn't just hide it away never to be seen again."

"What do you mean?" Willow said looking confused.

"I mean, say they suddenly did what you want them to, what would happen?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Think it through, Wills. This thing, or one like it, starts doing everything you said and then what?"

"The end to world hunger." Willow asked confused as to the question.

"At what cost?"

"I don't follow."

"All industries would suffer, farming, transportation, and if used for fuel, all of the big oil companies as well."

"So?"

"The economy would crash overnight, it would be a disaster. This little beauty could do more harm than good. There would be riots, civil unrest, I think they call it, and the balance of power across the entire planet would shift to those that had the Goop machine and those that didn't would be what? Gone?" 

"But..." 

"I've thought this through and I don't like it any more than you do, but I can't just hand it over. This sort of technology has to be introduced slowly and carefully. It's usually earned; besides there are some things that the Machine can't make, believe me. For instance, Credits back where this baby came from are made in such a way that they couldn't just be resequenced. Some alloys just don't come out right for some reason and a host of other little things. It's really only good for the most simple of structures, and by that I mean atomic structures. Food is fine for the most part, as are other things like some computer parts etc. It's not a cure all, Wills, as much as I wish it were. The human race would become fat and lazy if I just handed the tech to them, and they need to earn it to become what they can be one day. I know - I have seen it."

"What are you going to do then?" 

"About World hunger?" Xander asked wryly, and then his expression became serious when he saw that Willow did actually expect him to do something about just that issue. He thought about it for a moment.

"Given some time, I think I could set up a charitable foundation that would give food to the countries that needed it and aid where I could. I would have to be careful to set it up so it would stand up to scrutin. After all, I would have to be seen to buy materials and all that; oddly enough, I could use the materials to create Goop and then use the Goop to make more food types. I could possibly have something up and running within a year or two, but Charities need distribution networks set up and permits and all that diplomatic crap that I don't have access to at the moment. I will try though."

Willow nodded and flashed him a smile. "Good." she said with a nod like that was sorted out then. As if it were nothing. It was as if she had no idea of what he would have to do to pull off what he had just laid out for her. "What about demons? If I know you, you have some sort of plan in action. You said you could do amazing things with your technology, so what can you do about them?"

"That's not so clear cut actually, but I'm hoping that I can find new ways to kill them for starters. I plan of setting up a shell company for all this mining I've been doing. Some of the resources I'm getting will go to making the station for Earth's protection and perhaps a satellite system as well. I have a few ideas about that; the biggest problem will be that they need to be intelligent enough to move things out of the way and stealthily enough that a passing shuttle won't see them, all in a small package tethered to a weapons platform that's floating around the Earth. They would be the first line of defence, see. To allow me time to get there, but that's nothing to do with demons exactly. I'm just thinking if we have a major demon problem or worst case scenario they could turn around and blast them off the face of the Earth if the need arose."

"So back to the shell company," Xander said, "I'll use that to get rid of some excess resources and the sale of that lot can fund the research and development department. They will focus mostly on coming up with new and better ways of killing demons. One of the things I would like them to do at some point is release some patents on power cells, and that the world is ready for. The sales will help the mainline research, and the cells etc themselves will help humanity itself."

"My main goal," Xander went on, "is to make sure you, Buffy, Oz and Giles are all as safe as you can be. I'm already the best armed person around the place and I'll make sure you all are as well. The pendants I gave you and Buffy will help you to escape if the need arises, and I have some for Giles and Oz as well. I'm going to, and I can't believe I'm saying this, go to see Angel soon, and set him up as well."

"Cordy would want to see you."

"Cordy now is it?" Xander said surprised.

"We bonded over you, you dolt." Willow said with a fond smile.

"Scary thought." Xander admitted.

"She's okay I suppose, but I still don't really see why you went out with her."

"Other than the body to die for or the fact she is actually a good person?" Xander queried wryly.

"Other than that of course," Willow smiled, tongue in cheek.

Xander laughed and then paused. "You know, I can't believe I didn't think to ask before. Just exactly what has been going on with her since I last saw her?" pausing, he continued "I really must go and see her ASAP."

Willow rolled her eyes and began telling Xander everything she knew of what Cordelia and Angel had been up to since Xander had last seen her. 

_Carrier Bridge - Day_

Buffy walked to the bridge,and, eventually - after having gotten lost three times on the way there- found Willow regaling Xander with stories of not just Angel and Cordelia but everything that had been happening to them all. She smiled slightly as Willow was talking about how much she didn't like Faith from day one, and it was true that Willow had seemed to know Faith wasn't what she seemed from their first meeting. 

"She wasn't so bad." Buffy admitted, "Just sort of screwed up."

Xander smiled slightly, "She sounds a little lost I'll admit."

"But, but - Faith is bad, not at all someone to feel sorry for." Willow asserted.

"Sorry Wills, I get you don't like her but it sounds like she needs help - you know, when she wakes up."

"You're just saying that because I said all the guys liked her and you think she is hot sounding," Willow said with a huff.

"I may be male, Wills, but that doesn't mean I let it rule my life. I've met a few people like her out and about in space I have to say. There was a big war not too long back in 10000 and it left a lot of people on the outs, especially children, with no real family, and it sounds like Faith had no real family growing up either. They acted out in the same ways; well, not all of them obviously. Yokonamy lost his wife in that war, so I heard a lot of stories about it and I have to say it was harder on people than resources."

"Yeah, well, I still don't like her."

"You realise I can probably wake her up. Medical science is just one of the things I have access to after all. Hell, you're surrounded by the first line of repairing a human body all over the ship."

Buffy shivered. "Those Nano things? Still gives me the creeps."

"Don't worry. For the same reason I kept them away from Giles, they are away from you two as well. They will be from Oz too. I'm pretty sure they would see him as a danger actually, and they act as first line defence against ship boarding's as well. Of course counter measures exist in 10010 but not these days, so I've added him to the ignore list."

"What about you, though?" Willow asked.

"Utterly covered in them. I'm breathing them in and out even as we speak. They are harmless to me after all; in fact they are beneficial."

Both girls shivered at the same time, causing Xander to laugh. "Well, are you two ready to go back, or would you like to hang while I do some stuff?"

"Can I watch?" Willow asked.

"Sure," Xander said with a shrug, "But I sense Buffy wouldn't be interested. I will take you down to the work out halls while I work."

"While you work?" Buffy asked.

Xander made a gesture with his hand and became almost completely cocooned in screens. Another gesture and they were gone. "They'll follow me anywhere in the ship, and onto the other ships. Projected holographic touch screens basically. Pretty cool huh?"

"Holographic?" Willow asked eyes alight with interest.

"Basically." Xander said with another shrug. "There are some drones you can beat the crap out of if you're interested, Buff?"

"You know me so well." Buffy grinned.

Xander flashed a smile that made her heart beat just a little faster. "Come on then." He did the gesture and was again surrounded by screens. "Just step close, Wills, and you can watch me work. I've extended the reach."

Buffy found that she wished she was interested in the screens after all, and then shook it off. This was Xander she was having thoughts about it and it was an alien sensation to her. She already had a boyfriend who was a good man. As she was ruminating Willow had stepped into the oddly glowing sphere of screens around Xander and was making noises of geekie joy. Xander had started to move. "Coming Buff?" he asked.

"What's that?" Willow said as they set off again with Buffy in tow.

"Cargo report," Xander said with a shrug.

"Is that a diamond? It's huge!"

"Did someone say diamond?" Buffy inserted.

Xander laughed, and did something that reversed the display so that Buffy could see it as well. "It's uncut at the moment." 

"It's not all that much to look at like that is it?" Buffy noted, this being the first time she had seen an uncut diamond. Those in the bag in her room were all cut and shaped.

"Not really, no. This is the biggest one found so far. The computer is telling me the largest diamond found on earth so far is about 6,000 carets or 40oz. That makes this one about 10 times the size when cut, apparently. In other words one for the collection. They would only take it and cut it down into lesser diamonds instead of keeping it the way it is now, and that would seem a shame to me."

"That's - that's HUGE" Willow said after a moment's stunned thought.

"Yes, but essentially it's worthless because there is no way I could just turn up somewhere and sell this without a damn good provenance." Xander said with a laugh. "Besides, I need something for my room to cheer it up."

"Can I have it?" was out of Buffy's mouth before she could stop herself. "Sorry!" she added.

"Don't be sorry; when its cut it'll be in your room." Xander promised as if he hadn't just given away a several hundred million dollars diamond.

"Buffy!" Willow said harshly, wishing she had said it first.

Buffy was bright red, and feeling a little strange about how easily Xander had just handed that over.

"Next one goes to Willow," Xander told her with a grin, "Then I'm having the one after that." he added with a laugh. "In return you need to ask your Mom about getting me some art work to put up in there. Once I set up a Transmat booster, I'll be able to come direct to Earth in about three seconds flat. So there is no reason for me not to make use of my room here. That way I can keep track of everything a little easier."

"You're going to live here?" Buffy asked surprised.

"Why not? It's cheaper than buying a place." Xander said tapping away on one of his screens. "Hmm," he said. "Looks like I have a large quantity of an unknown ore here. Luckily the barges knew better than to waste anything that wasn't crappy rock. No idea what it is though, kinda black looking, a bit shiny?" he asked of the two women.

"Means nothing to me," Buffy said taking a moment to lean against a wall still feeling a little shaky from the diamond incident.

"Nor me," Willow admitted, "How did the Mining Barge know it was an ore if it's unknown?"

"Basic composition, and all that. Ore's weigh more for starters. Apparently there are a few asteroids out there with a core made of this stuff. It's pretty dense; might be useful for something I suppose." Xander said and moving on to another screen.

"How much do you have so far?" Willow asked, interested in how fast he was mining, or was mining. Xander looked back to the previous display, "100 ton or thereabouts."

"That's quite a lot." Willow said carefully.

"If I don't find another use for it I'll Goop it."

"There must be a technical name for it other than Goop." Willow said.

"Inert Source Material," Xander rattled off. "I did wonder myself so I checked, but I think Goop sounds better, easier to say too."

"Right to this elevator and down a few floors," he said turning to Buffy.

"Cool," Buffy said with a smile, though she was feeling far too off her game to really have a good workout.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 06 **_

_Angel Investigations, the Hyperion Hotel – Day_

Cordelia Chase let out a sigh, and looked around the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel, their new Headquarters and home. She still had her apartment, but some nights she just went to sleep in one of the many rooms available in the ex-hotel. She let out another sigh and looked around again, as if waiting for something to happen. Angel was out with Wesley doing the avenger thing, though of late Angel seemed troubled by something.

Cordy fished around in her purse and pulled out a nail file. It looked to be another one of 'those' nights where nothing ever happened; they were far too frequent for her liking. The trouble was they hardly seemed to offset the times when they were running for their lives through the streets of LA. Still, it did give her time to work on her nails and perhaps if things kept slow she would breakout the foot massager beneath the counter. 

Just then the doorway chimed gently as a familiar red haired form walked in. A smile came to the beautiful brunette's face followed by a slight frown, as Willow didn't look like she was feeling too well. Behind her Buffy looked even worse. "Are you guys alright?" Cordy asked, putting down her things and rushing over to them and gently pushing them to the chairs in the centre of the room.

"Yeah - just peachy," Buffy said looking like she was about to throw up all over the floor.

"What happened, some big demon with nasty breath or something?" Cordy asked seriously. "I can phone Angel and get him here to help in just a sec." she said reaching towards the counter.

"No, it's okay nothing like that - just travel lag or something." Willow said with a pained smile.

"Ooh Kay, how'd you get here? witchy teleporting - didn't think you were powerful enough for that."

"Not witchy teleporting no," Buffy said with a smirk on her face. "Look we actually came here to see you, not Angel."

"Makes a nice change," Cordy said with a smile. "So what can I do for you both?"

"It's – um, delicate." Willow admitted. "We kind of found something that's been missing for a while. We wanted to come and warn you because this thing - well it wants to come and say Hi."

"Thing,? Cordy said worriedly.

"Not a thing, a person." Buffy said with a glare at Willow.

"Okay then, who wants to see me."

"Well first of all, we've tested this person and they are who they say they are, and they aren't a vampire or something."

Cordelia looked at them clueless, which struck Willow as strange because she was normally quite quick on the uptake.

"Okay," Cordy said, "Who are we talking about here."

There was a ping at the door and Cordy turned with an annoyed expression, "Not now whoever you are I'm busy."

"Okay," a male voice responded but Cordelia had already turned back to the two women. "I'll just wait over here till the penny drops."

"Come back later please." Cordy said without turning back, wondering why Buffy looked like she was trying not to bust a gut.

"Urh - best I don't. Don't want Angel trying to kill me before I have you on side Cor."

Cordelia froze, her brain catching up rather fast especially at the use of the nickname Cor. "Xander?" she said in a small voice. 

"Yes Cor," Xander said walking slowly towards her.

"This can't be real," Cordy said, looking a little pale.

"Don't you faint on me," Xander said with a humorous expression on his face.

"As if, who do you think I am - Willow - no offence?"

"None taken," Willow said dryly, though she was virtually ignored.

Cordelia suddenly flew across the intervening space between herself and Xander and kissed him soundly. So soundly that Xander's brain was still rebooting when she hauled off and slapped him hard enough to make his teeth rattle.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"Look Cor, wait - I can explain – no, hang on, why am I defending myself here." Xander said looking confused.

Cordy launched herself at Xander again. Xander tensed but it was for another kiss and this time a hug to go along with it. Tears were streaming down her sculpted cheeks.

Xander hugged her back hard and was looking a little teary himself, but then she had always had a way of bypassing his carefully constructed walls in some way he had never figured out.

"I suppose you think I'm just going to drop everything and get back with you." Cordy said with a slight smile.

Xander laughed and stroked her hair, "Wouldn't say no - never to you."

"Tough," Cordy exclaimed, "I like my life now."

"What, fighting back the forces of darkness and that Dark avenger stuff?" Xander said with a slightly surprised look.

"I caught the habit from some place."

Xander smiled again, "I can help - eventually, and a little right now. I'm guessing Deadboy still has underworld contacts?" Xander said stepping back slightly and being a little more businesslike.

"First you tell me what the hell happened to you, and then we'll get to how you would be able to help anyone!"

"It's not the easiest thing to believe, which is the other reason I brought these two with me." Xander said with a smirk and a nod at Willow and Buffy, "Wimps."

"Shove it Xander."

_The Hyperion Hotel – Later On_

Angel walked into the Hyperion to the sound of laughter which had been in short supply of late. Everything had seemed to be getting so serious, even he was with the strange dreams of his Sire he had been having of late, bringing up bad memories that he had hoped would be forever buried.

Then he heard the voice of Willow, and more surprisingly that of Buffy, reply to whatever was said to cause the laughter.

"But Xander, we all knew what you got up to in the closet even before Cordy told us." Buffy said.

Angel's considerable brow furrowed, "Xander?" he murmured. Quickly he moved towards the back office behind the reception desk and peeked around the corner. "What the hell?"

"Dead Boy!" Xander said cheerfully, "Long time, no see"

Angel blinked, looked at Willow, then Buffy, and finally at Cordelia. Being in LA had taught him a lot and if these people were sitting with Xander with no fear and no precautions being taken it was obvious they had already checked to make sure he was who he said he was. "Oh great, you're back." Angel said with a hint of a smile and a heavy voice.

"I know, great isn't it?"

"Oh you two, will you never get over it already?" Buffy said with a sigh.

"Far too easy to do that, it's more fun this way," Xander commented.

"So Angel, Xander here has a proposition for us," Cordelia said knowing damn well that she would have to fill in the back story later, but that for now her boss wasn't all that interested.

"Oh?" Angel said with very little interest.

"I hear money can be a little tight at times." Xander said and held up a hand, "I dragged it out of her, but that's not really the point. If you help me - I'll help you."

"Oh?" Angel said again, this time with a little more interest and a slight glare in Cordelia's direction.

"I have - quite a few gems to get rid of, and for now I have no real way to do that. I reckon that you know a demon that knows a guy type of thing who can help me out, probably steal me blind in the process, but still get me a good enough price?"

"I might at that." Angel admitted stroking his chin and thinking over a few possibilities.

"I'll give you a nice shiny bag of gems of your very own for every 5 you do for me."

"How many do you have? I happen to know a demon clan out west that uses gems as a staple form of diet and they pay top dollar for a supply."

"I can keep them fed for a while is my thinking." Xander admitted.

Angel nodded, "I'll contact them. They aren't short of money and are one of the few of their type that are peaceful."

"Perfect. I like the peaceful ones."

"Where did you get so many gems?"

"Mining," was the short response.

"You should see my rock." Buffy said with a giddy grin, "I call it Beth."

There was a moment of silence as everyone just looked at her strangely for a moment.

_Shady Pine Cemetery - Night_

The air was still and there was a slight fog on the ground as they walked through one of the many large cemeteries in LA. This one was quite high above the main part of the city and there had been reports of a cadre of vampires moving into the area recently. Thus Angel had asked Buffy if she would like to go along to help clear it out, and Xander had invited himself along. Willow had joined them and Cordelia was so bored that she too had gone along with the rest of them.

Angel was less than enthused with the entire affair but was fixed on a course of action as soon as he had opened his mouth to invite Buffy along. It would have been nice to talk to Buffy alone, like they used to when he patrolled with her in Sunnydale. 

Still it wasn't worth crying over spilt milk, even if he did have to put up with Xander. Of course, there was always the off chance that he would be knocked out the first time they started fighting. A vampire could only hope after all.

"So, I suppose you must have missed this out there in, you know, space." Cordelia said to Xander who was walking next to her. She had to admit he still gave her those good low down shivers when she set eyes on him. But then unlike the others she knew what he was really like when they were alone together. Of course there were no closets around to see if he had changed at all, for shame. She had meant what she said, but then again she was also single and it wasn't like she got a lot of chance to date, not without some disaster happening at least. 

"Oh yeah - I never patrolled in space." Xander said with a smirk.

"I meant walking around at night, in the cold, waiting for a fight." Cordelia said slapping his arm. 

"Well actually," Xander began but Cordelia apparently hadn't finished.

"I expect you've gotten really out of shape for this sort of thing. Come to think of it, you had better stick close."

Xander smothered a laugh and nodded very seriously, "Of course Cor."

"Good. You just got back, I don't want anything bad to happen to you. Not on my watch. Those two would never forgive me for starters." she added when she realised what she was saying.

"Of course Cor," Xander repeated with a twinkle. Almost lazily he reached out and caught the bat that was heading for Cordelia's head and looked at the vampire, "You'd better watch out; if this is out of shape can you imagine what I'd be like normally." Xander commented as he pulled hard on the bat and took it away from the surprised vampire's hands.

He then turned it around on the vampire and beat a tattoo up and down the vampires' body, finally sweeping the vampire's legs from under him, reversing the bat and slamming it down so hard it punctured the vampire's rib cage and dusted the still shocked looking vampire.

In the meanwhile the rest of the gang was reacting to the surprise attack and hadn't really noticed that he had despatched his vampire with relative ease. Angel and Buffy were fighting back to back, their arms almost a blur as they fought. Willow was standing back and adding artillery to their infantry with spells as Vampires swarmed into their position.

Xander grabbed himself a playmate and in front of Cordelia's shocked eyes proceeded to take it apart using a Martial Arts style that looked military but just a little different. He snapped off a kick that sent the vampire flying away from him, then stepped back to dodge a flying vampire that was leaping at him, jumping back at the original vampire and slamming a ridge hand into its throat. As it went down gurgling with blood entering its throat Xander span around with a leg leading the way and slammed a foot into the original flying vampire's head. The move did little more than stun the vampire but it gave him long enough to draw his side arm and send a compressed blast of plasma into the undead American's heart.

Since essentially what he had just fired was a form of natural energy ionised and compressed into a spitting ball of energy, the vampire was dusted in a blink. With that done Xander turned and shot the other vampire he had been dancing with and turned to check on Cordelia. "Okay there Cor?" he asked flashing her a smile. 

"Peachy," Cordelia said, slightly pale with shock.

"Cool beans," Xander said and turned back to the main fight, systematically putting shots into the backs of the vampires fighting with Angel and Buffy. They ignored it thinking it was Willow's spell work, but were surprised to find they suddenly had no one to fight when there was a final hiss-zap sound and another ball of plasma hit the back of a vampire and dusted it before their surprised eyes.

"I forgot how much fun it was to watch them go poof," Xander commented mildly spinning his blaster around a finger and slipping it back into the holster at his hip.

"I thought that was a freaking toy or something," Buffy said with shock in her tone.

"Urh – no," Xander said, "Why would I carry a toy around with me?"

"Well it is you, doofus," Cordelia said having regained herself after her shock.

"Jesus guys I'm not 16 anymore, I'm 26 for crying out loud. I'm not gonna carry around a freaking toy!"

Angel cleared his throat, "Got any of those spare?"

Xander smiled, "Sure have."

"I want one," Angel said, but without beating around the bush added "What's it going to cost me?"

Xander just smiled, causing Angel to groan.

_Cordelia's Apartment - Night_

"He kicked ass," Cordelia said to Buffy and Willow as they were sat around her large bed in her apartment. They had decided to call it a night and Cordelia had offered up her place for the evening. An offer the two women had jumped at so quickly that it had worried Cordelia for a moment until she saw Xander smirking at them. Xander himself had passed on needing a room and had instead disappeared for a few moments out the front of the hotel, only to return a moment later with 6 bags of gems; and they were not small bags.

"Seriously, Xander was never what you could call a great fighter before he left." Buffy said dubiously, she hadn't seen the fighting from any other perspective other than the vampire in front of her and the others around it. Angel had been the same she was sure.

Willow shrugged, "I was working my mojo towards the main fight. I figured Cordelia could handle herself and Xander."

"Thanks Willow," Cordelia said with a smile. It was always nice to hear the so called super powered ones didn't think she was a total loss in the fighting aspect, though she herself preferred to have a sword to hand when fighting vampires.

"Anyway it looked kinda military like the fighting they do." Cordelia said after a moment's pause. 

"I suppose that makes sense." Buffy said slowly.

"He did say he had served for a year with the navy thing where he was. He was also at some sort of academy that I assume was also military so he might have learned it there."

"Xander? Military?" Cordelia said, amused.

"Why, he was soldier guy during that Halloween if you remember." Buffy said defensively.

Cordelia cocked an eyebrow at her, "Interesting," she said with a smirk.

Buffy frowned, "What is?"

"Oh – nothing," Cordelia said feigning innocence.

"Cordy!" Willow said suddenly catching on, "No way."

"I think so," Cordelia said with another smirk.

"What?" Buffy said exasperated.

"No doubt you'll figure it out eventually." Cordelia said while Willow looked at her friend suspiciously.

_Xander's Quarters - Space_

Xander let out a laugh as he pictured Cordelia's face again when she had seen him fighting. Was it such a shock that he knew how to fight? The Academy had taught him how to look after himself after all. Mostly they were a flight school but that wasn't all they did. He had even done a few extra courses that had helped him out over the years whilst freelancing for Yokonamy Industries. Xander lay back on his plush bed with a smirk, memories of the Academy going through his mind.

He had enjoyed it there all told. It had been hard work, both mentally and physically,but satisfying all the same and of course afterwards he had been drafted into the navy for a year term. Nothing amazing, mostly border patrols and pirate skirmishes really, but it had taught him a lot about combat.

The command courses at the Academy had also taught a lot about how combat worked on a more broad view level. The movement of craft in 3D space was a subtle science when you added the fire-power a lot of military craft had.

Protecting a planet alone was a hell of a thing on a broad strokes level. The knowledge of which he was trying to subtly apply to looking after Earth. It wasn't quite enough to whack up a star-base nearby and hope your response times were good enough to look after it. The surface of an entire planet could be glassed over in minutes with the right weaponry; weaponry he hoped didn't exist so far in the universe outside of his own fleet. He knew damn well he wouldn't hurt a planet like that for sure.

Satellites were his first priority, something that could remain undetected but cast a sensor net over the entire system and Earth itself. He had already set up a design and put it to work on a replication plant on the carrier itself. He couldn't wait for the starbase to be ready for that. For one thing the crystalline structure of the geode was slowing him down, but ultimately worth it due to the protection it offered him from other people's sensors. Of course, to get that protection he was slightly damaging it. That could not be helped though. The design for the satellites was simple enough; it was basically a sensor system that would network with the other satellites and inform him instantly of trouble. Then he had added a cloak and the required power supply systems. The cores should last about ten years before he had to replace them. Then he had added a weapons system that had some simple plasma technology that could likely take out anything dangerous.

He had the slight problem that he wasn't sure what he was protecting the Earth against, technology wise, so he was just making some assumptions about their abilities.

He just had to be there for a reason, and the fact he had a fleet with him led him to believe that he was needed to protect the planet from space. It would have been nice to know what he was dealing with though.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 07**

The sensation that came with a Transmat was hard to truly explain for people who had been around magic. Most people who had not been around magic would notice nothing; it was supposedly instantaneous. For Xander and the others though it truly wasn't.

First it felt like a thousand ants crawling across your body.

Then it got worse as you were squeezed through a tube and shoved really hard up the ass. You were then sucked through a curly straw and spat out the other side with those ants again. Depending on the journey it got worse with distance.

So when Buffy and Willow arrived on the bridge of the newly christened Krakken they immediately dropped to the deck and emptied their stomachs. There was a weird golden glow around the two puddles of waste and then suddenly it was gone, leaving two green looking young women on their knees in front of a highly amused Xander who was that day in his black flight suit. It was quite tightly fitted but seemed to have a lot of pockets in which he had stored all manner of devices. Some of which were obvious - like a torch - and others the two women had no idea about.

"I like you two at my feet," Xander said with a smirk.

"Shove it Xander." Buffy said.

Xander smirked again, "Yes, but shove it where?" he drawled back at her causing her to go bright red.

"Xander!" Willow said in shock then erupted into giggles. Considering what she and Cordelia had been talking about when Buffy had finally gone to sleep the night before it was funny as hell to her.

"Xander," Buffy added, "I have a boyfriend."

"Oh really, and this is the first I hear of it?" Xander said in surprise, "Is he alive?"

"What? Yes, of course he is!"

"I like him already."

"You wouldn't have said that if you'd met Parker." Willow said.

"Willow, do we have to be in total share mode," Buffy asked in an aside to her red haired friend.

Willow just smirked at her, and stood up holding out a hand to help the other woman up. Buffy ignored the hand and vaulted to her feet easily. Then she went a little pale. "I hate that transtelething."

"Who is Parker?"

"A poopy head that slept with Buffy and then dumped her," Willow helpfully filled in.

"Willow, for crying out loud!" Buffy exclaimed, exasperated.

"Poopy head," Xander said with a put upon sigh, "He was a bastard then, met a few like him in my time. So where do I find him?"

"Why?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

"No reason," Xander said with fake innocence.

"He's at the university campus most days." Willow said with a smirk knowing full well what she was doing, "Buffy did hit him on the head with a log though. So he's probably atoned enough."

"Nah," Xander said and made a gesture with his hand, "Parker Abrahams?" he said looking through a list of students at the University, "Or Parker May?"

"The first one I think," Buffy said then blushed when Willow turned on her with a lifted eyebrow. "What? I want to see what he's going to do."

"Nothing much," Xander said and triggered the long range Transmat. "Other than put him in a tub of Goop, and you know how much that shit smells and then I'll go have a, um, chat with him when he's nearly drowned in it."

"Xander!" Buffy said bursting into laughter.

"No one hurts my Buffy or Willow." Xander told her seriously.

"**YOUR **Buffy and Willow?" Willow asked dangerously, "We're not pets."

"You kind of looked like it when you were on your knees earlier." Xander said with a smirk and then back peddled when he saw the looks they were shooting him.

"I just meant it as a token of how much I care about the two of you and Cordelia actually. I love Oz like a male person as well, but he'd get the same if he hurt you. He should keep that in mind considering I can now get him anywhere on the planet."

"Honestly, Xander, stop trying to be so manly." Buffy said with an eye roll, "We get it you're a guy."

"I'm not trying to be anything Buff. I'm serious."

Buffy looked at him for a long moment and then realised that he was indeed being deadly serious. "Parker really is in a vat of Goop isn't he?"

"Yep," Xander nodded.

"Thank you."

_Outskirts of Sol - Space_

A hyperspace window opened on the very edge of the Sol system and a Pyramid ship came to a standstill and hovered in the darkness of space. The huge golden ship unleashed it's scanners at the third rock from the sun and got ready to jump back out of the system as soon as it's scans were complete.

Its mission was really quite simple, get a good look at the current capabilities of Earth and see how far along they had come since they had the gate, and then get out before being detected. They were far enough away that it was unlikely that Earth's usually primitive technology could detect them at all.

_Bridge of the Carrier - Space_

Xander's smile was wiped off his face when viewscreens suddenly came to life all around him, showing him a strange ship of unknown specification. A slight frown made its way onto his face when he saw the configuration of the vessel itself, and then a smirk lit his face. "Finally," he noted and turned to Buffy and Willow, "Time to go if you want to be safe."

"We're staying," Buffy said with a glance at Willow.

Xander nodded, and touched a viewscreen, "Parker will have to wait until another day," he said with a tiny hint of a smile on his face. "You two go sit over there - don't move and don't speak more than you have to." he said in a commanding voice. In fact, he would prefer they were not there at all but this way he circumvented the argument entirely and was able to resort to violence as fast as he needed to.

The entire fleet suddenly came to life around them as the Carrier began to move at a surprising speed and the other vessels around it got out of the way in a hurry.

"Bring voice command unit online," Xander said in an authoritive voice, "Authorisation Xander-Omega 1"

"Online," The computer intoned, startling the girls.

"Bring military programs online, Same Authorisation, emergency operations for solo commander protocols online."

"Online," the soft tones of the computer said again.

Xander waved the Viewscreens away, "Bring a scan of the enemy vessel onto the main viewscreen."

The entire front of the bridge was suddenly showing detailed scans of the Pyramid ship. "Interesting. They're pretty heavily shielded." Xander said mostly to himself but also to keep his friends in the loop as well. He walked to the centre of the deck and sat in the command chair, back straight and eyes alight with energy.

"Full speed ahead, bring us in on a direct intercept vector."

"Confirmed Full speed in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - full speed is achieved."

"That was quick." Buffy whispered to her friend who just nodded.

There was a small series of numbers under the ship on the main view screen ticking down at a rapid rate. "Open a channel to them, find out what frequencies they are using and patch me in."

"Working - confirmed."

"Enemy vessel, leave the system or be terminated. This is a protected system and all scans are considered an aggressive act."

"Who dares," a strangely toned voice said, almost as if there were two voices speaking at the same time.

"I am Yokonamy of the Krakken. Leave the system now or risk destruction."

"I am Ya'Ri and I answer to none other than my Lord Apophis."

"Targeting computers online," Xander said without bothering to silence the communication.

"You would risk war?"

"I have stated the terms of this engagement, either accept them or die." Xander said and cut the communication with a sharp movement of his hand.

"Laying it on a little heavy there, Xan," Buffy murmured. "What if he calls your bluff?"

"I never bluff; Buff," Xander told her without turning to face her.

"But..."

"Buffy!" Xander cut her off, his meaning clear; shut up or else.

"We're here," Xander said as the ship suddenly came to a stop in front of the Pyramid ship. They dwarfed it by length but the Pyramid ship seemed to exude a sense of power. "We are side on to them now as is usual in carrier fights so we can field craft and weapons fire at the same time." he said to his friends.

"Are we locked?" Xander said, his voice tight.

"Locked," was the calm female response.

"Bring Plasma Cannons Five through fourteen online and fire a shot off their bow."

There was a muted thumping sound and a bevy of plasma blasts whistled next to the Pyramid ship, one hitting the shields and making it become visible where it hit.

"I said **OFF** their bow" Xander commented wryly.

"Their shield is inefficient," the computer replied in the closest that Xander had ever come to hearing it make an excuse. He gave a grim smile as the ship was hit by laser beams that crackled across the shields of his mighty vessel. "Shields holding at 100%" The computer informed him.

"Hold information until Shields get to 95%" Xander said. He didn't want the damn computer telling him that every time they got hit.

Across a staggering distance the Pyramid ship's weapon systems unleashed their deadly energy at the Krakken again, and barely caused a ripple in his shielding. Just then a host of smaller ships were released from the other ship's landing bays and streaked towards them.

"Interesting. It seems they are more used to fighter combat than capital ship combat. Probably means they have nothing that can really hurt us." Xander said half looking over his shoulder at his friends, both of whom looked a little pale.

Just then, as if to prove him wrong, the ship rocked slightly as a missile hit their shields. "What the hell was that?" Xander said, shocked.

"Unknown signature, computing path of origin…. It came directly from the aggressor as a slow missile. Shields at 94%"

"Shit! Right, open up Plasma canons 1 through 18 and fire directly at their power cores. Start targeting the smaller ships for ship suppression guns and open fire."

In space it was if someone had put a barrier a few miles away from the Krakken as any fighter that tried to cross it was blown away by the enemy craft suppression system, which entailed a large selection of smaller plasma weapons firing at a rapid rate to give the Krakken breathing space to launch its own fighters. Or that was the idea, only they didn't have any pilots to launch anything with. The craft suppression system also had the side effect of tracking incoming missiles though and blowing them out of the air.

"Let one of the fighters through" Xander said his eyes fixed on the screen, "Transmat the Pilot to the brig and tractor the fighter into landing bay ten."

"Open up Rail guns five through eight. Those fighters are annoying me."

Rail guns were smaller than the Plasma guns but were very good at holing hulls on vessels that had no shields left. Some of the plasma shots were not immediately killing the fighter craft, and that annoyed Xander.

"Bring Expulsor five on-line."

"Working."

"A what?" Buffy breathed to Willow.

Willow shook her head again, and then made a shushing motion with her finger to her lips.

"On-line - charging - Charged."

"Fire when ready"

A massive beam of energy leapt from the Krakken and lanced across space, hitting the Pyramid ship head on and making its shield flare into the visible spectrum. After a tense second the shield failed. Then the entire vessel trembled as it was speared through the middle.

"Disengage." Xander said.

"You will rue the day!" a voice cut in over the comm system and caused Xander to smile. He noticed a few larger craft leaving the big carrier and sat back in his seat. "I want one of those. Chart a pursuit course and - " he was cut off when they all disappeared into what appeared to be a window of energy in space. "That was funky. Computer tell me; a) What hit us, and b) what the hell they jumped into."

"Scanning and collating a report, Commander."

"Thanks," Xander said and turned to his passengers, "Sorry about that - but I had to do the protecting bit. I am fairly sure that's one of the reasons I'm here. I'm a little annoyed they got away, but once that report is back we can come up with ways to combat them properly. Talking of which, computer Tractor what's left of that vessel back with us, set course back to base and move as slowly as we need to, to make sure that doesn't fall apart any more than it already is. Is it me or does that look like a pyramid?"

"Xander, you just probably killed hundreds of - aliens." Buffy said aghast.

Xander looked at her and let out a small sigh, "In some ways I'm glad you treasure life like that Buffy, but you have to admit that not everyone does. I gave them fair warning to get the hell out of there but they didn't, so I had to react as strongly as I could so that, maybe, the next time they think of coming here they'll think twice. Do I mourn them? yeah a little. I don't like killing. Admittedly it's cleaner in space battle than you might think when fighting like that. It's not infighter craft, that much I can tell you. But at the end of the day what I just did was for the protection of the planet. Which is no less nor more than you do every night. Mine is just a different playing field from yours."

"But," Buffy insisted then lapsed into silence for a moment. "I just don't know Xander, it seems so - big."

"Has it occurred to you that if not for you 8 billion people could die?"

"Wha ?"

"You've saved the world, the entire world, how many times now?"

"But...I... Wow I need to sit down."

"You are Buff." Xander said with a fond smile.

"Okay, good."

"Xander you didn't need to lay that on her! She'll be in a daze for the rest of the day," Willow told him with a glare.

Xander shrugged and then smirked, "I know."

"How long till we get back," Willow asked.

"To base, about three hours given the speed we're going towing that stupid thing. This is good I need to talk to my prisoner."

"Oh I'd forgotten about him." Willow said a little pale.

"You guys need to wait here, us warrior types need command structures and uniforms to respond to."

"You have a uniform?"

"Actually, I do."

_The Carriers Brig - Space_

Rak'nah looked up as a door slid to the side and a young looking human walked in. He was dressed head to toe in black cloth that glittered as he moved with several bright coloured ribbons on his chest. There was gold piping down the front of the strange clothing and there was a highly polished but obviously used side arm at his hip.

"Who are you?" the man asked in a tone that boded bad things for Rak'nah if he misspoke. But then he was used to that tone; he got it often enough from the gods he served.

As the large Jaffa looked over Xander, Xander looked over the Jaffa. He looked to be of Indian descent and was huge, largely muscled with long dark hair past his shoulders; but his defining feature had to be his height, which had to be over 7 foot tall if not more. His eyes also shone with intelligence, so Xander knew he had not only a warrior to talk to but an intelligent man also.

"I am Rak'nah, Jaffa to the one true God Apophis."

"Interesting. I just took your ship for my collection." Xander said with a slight smile.

"It is but a tool, a craft I use to smite my lords enemies."

"No - not that ship, the mother ship."

The Jaffa paled suddenly. "I defeated it in combat and everyone ran away like the cowards they are before my wrath." Xander pressed, "Just as this Apophis will when he comes to call on me."

"Impossible, you are a human and Apophis is a god, he cannot be beaten by the likes of you."

Xander looked at the tall Jaffa for a long moment and then smiled, "Am I not a god then?"

"What?"

"I defeated the weak god on the mother ship easily. He didn't even scratch my paintwork and I forced him out of the system like a small furry animal scurrying for its burrow."

The Jaffa blinked slowly. The human - or was that god - had a point. Ya'ri was a god and he was defeated, as was the way of the weaker gods, often defeated by stronger gods. Even his lord Apophis had taken his seat by destroying Sokkar. But only gods could fight other gods and win, he knew this in the depths of his soul, so that must mean that he was talking with a god, and a powerful angry god at that.

"A demonstration is in order I think." Xander said and waved a hand in a specific gesture that caused a viewscreen to pop up in front of him and display a video log of the battle that showed just how beaten the Pyramid ship and its fleet of fighters had truly been.

The Jaffa bowed, "My Lord."

Xander smirked evilly. "Swear your allegiance to me and live."

The Jaffa looked up and seemed to be on the edge of making a decision. "If I do my lord my family will be killed as the family of a Sol'va."

"What if I told you that I would save your family, and the families of any of the other Jaffa I have captured? I have the mother ship and I doubt your previous masters cared enough to save many."

"My Lord, I swear on my honour to serve you to the end of my days if you save my family."

Xander liked that he had added that proviso, he really did; it showed some guile and not just a complete follower. These people seemed to have a very simple but forceful belief system about gods that he would need to research. When he had taken a lay down, as he was crashing with adrenaline at that moment in time. "Rest, my warrior. What do they call a commander in your ex-god's ships?"

"First prime, my lord."

"Rest - my First Prime, I will have quarters prepared for you shortly, but until then, these will have to do."

"Thank you my lord."

Xander walked out of the cell with a smirk on his face and plans swirling around in his head. Then he paused, "Hey - what are your people called?"

"Jaffa, my lord"

Xander left nodding his head.

_The Bridge - Space_

"Xander," Buffy said as he walked back into the bridge, then she paused her rage and said, "You look nice." She shook herself, then "I don't believe that you just made that guy think you were his god!"

Xander smirked, "Willow got the computer to monitor me did she?"

"Yeah, but that's not the point!"

"Hmmm, well I didn't have a lot of choice really. This way I have gotten an ally out of a combatant and I didn't have to kill him. Surely you prefer this way?"

"Well – yeah, I suppose – but…"

"This way I have a chance of 'converting' the other Jaffa of the ship as well."

"But why?" Buffy asked.

"If you haven't noticed, Buffy, I'm a little short on manpower here. This way I can give them limited access; train them to use the tech to a certain extent to begin with and field my fighters during a battle. You have no idea how hampered I was back in that battle. There is no way that mother ship is a real threat to this ship and yet they managed to down my shield by 5% with a single hit from whatever the hell they hit me with. Talking of which, Computer what were we hit with?"

"From scans of the captured ships database we were hit with a Naquadah warhead."

"A what?" Xander asked, creasing his brow.

"Naquadah is their name for the ore we have in our cargo holds that we have designated 'Black Shiny Stuff' as per your order."

"Oh that shit packs a punch," Xander said thoughtfully, "What else can you tell me. Where the hell did they go?"

"That was a Hyperspace window, to translate their terms. It is not unlike F-Space only less efficient."

"Ahh, sweet. Since we have no navigation beacons, that could be useful. Can our drives be converted to work with that Hyper Space?"

"They can, though adding another drive would seem easier and more efficient."

"Put it on the replicator plants' schedule as a priority then." Xander said with a smile. "What about the mothership. Can it be repaired? We have a few spare drones I think."

"Extensive damage exists from use of the Expulsor beam, but we missed the main core of the ship, instead disabled most systems including the automatic self-destruct that even now the Jaffa are working to repair."

"They want to blow themselves up?"

"It would appear so; I have blocked their attempts through our remote link."

"I'll have our pet Jaffa talk to them shortly. I think he'll be able to talk most of them over, especially if I take him over myself. Actually, get me a repulsor pad. I think I might need it for some special effects."

"Confirmed"

"Now, Buff, what were you saying?"

_The Carrier's Brig - Space_

Rak'nah looked at the god who stood next to him with awe. Even though he towered over the god he was sure that he would not last a second in mortal combat. The god just had an air of a warrior which none of the gods he had met before had ever had about them.

"Ready Rak'nah?" Xander asked, having finally found out the Jaffa's name.

Rak'nah nodded, still amazed at his change of fortune. He had been elevated by his new god, who called him by name by preference, and saved when hundreds of his brothers had fallen to his god.

Then suddenly they were standing on the wrecked Pel'tac of his old ship and had several staff weapons aimed at them by some of the remaining Jaffa.

"Jaffa Kree," Rak'nah called, his deep voice easily carrying over the general noise.

"Who is this you stand with?" a burly Jaffa demanded to know.

"This is your god," Rak'nah said in no uncertain terms.

"My god is Apophis; Shol'va"

"Do you remember how Lord Apophis became your master?" Rak'nah asked almost casually.

"Of course, he bested Sokkar in combat."

"And has not the Lord Yokonamy just bested you all, and by extension Apophis, in combat? For it is only a god who could best a god, is it not?"

The Jaffa stilled his motion as he began to think on that. "You know that Jaffa are claimed as spoils when one god moves into another's territory. The Lord Yokonamy has just taken us all as spoils of war and expects you to kneel before him and serve him unfailingly."

"He is not a god! Look I will show you." the burly Jaffa cried, rushing Xander. Xander just lifted his palm and sent the Burly Jaffa flying straight over the other side of the room; crashing hard enough to dent the metal of the wall. The Jffa slid down the wall into a groaning heap.

"See; he has godly powers," one Jaffa said to another.

"Have we not seen the Lord Apophis do this to others?" another said.

Xander smiled slightly and palmed the repulsor into his pocket. He had a feeling he had just broken the back of the argument with that little display, the story of which would doubtless be passed from Jaffa to Jaffa after he had left.

"Even now the great Lord Yokonamy shows benevolence, as, see, he still lives." Rak'nah said walking over to the felled Jaffa and pulling him to his feet.

"Come Rak'nah, I wish to see the ship." Xander said in an imperious voice.

"Spread the word, my brothers, our Lord Yokonamy is our new God."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight**

_Bridge of the Krakken – Space_

Things had gotten ahead of Xander, and he was well aware of that fact, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up as soon as he realised just what he was dealing with when it came to the Jaffa. As he had walked through the mother ship earlier he had pangs to realise just how many of them had died in the earlier combat, but as he had told Buffy before it had been necessary.

The Jaffa now appeared to be almost docilely following his commands, as if this sort of thing had happened to them before on more than one occasion. From discussions with Rak'nah, it had indeed. It struck Xander as pretty horrible what the Goa'uld was doing to their Jaffa, for that was the name that his computer had found for the rulers of the Jaffa - Goa'uld. They were like a walking ego with a god complex and it sent shivers down his back knowing he had to pretty much act like one to get anything done with the Jaffa.

They were now working hard to fix their own ship and repairs were coming along nicely with his drones' help. The drones worked the outside while the Jaffa worked the inside, and together it was coming together at a nice pace. Still, he wasn't quite sure of his next step. He knew he had to follow up on his promise and protect the families of his new Jaffa followers. He owed it to them, and more he owed it to himself to prove that he was not an egomaniac with a god complex.

The Goa'uld didn't care about the Jaffa under their command and Xander was bound and determined to make sure that he did. Everything he did now, he did with an eye to protecting the Sol System from the Goa'uld and anyone else who would try to hurt Earth, even if it meant taking control of a few hundred Jaffa.

He now had crew; crew he didn't entirely trust as yet, but crew all the same, and it was likely when he did go to free their families he would have a crew that he could trust and pick up more besides. It was starting to occur to him that he had set himself up to have to rule a sector of space, and that almost made him laugh when he didn't want to crawl into a corner and shake with fear. There was nothing for it now, though, but to follow through with his actions or fail, and he couldn't afford to do that.

He had to think bigger than he had ever thought before in order to carry this out. He had responsibilities, and oh how he hated that. Before it had just been him; now he could potentially be looking after millions of Jaffa in a few short weeks. He knew what he had to do in order to properly protect the Jaffa families and warriors he had gained and it didn't sit all that well with him, but again he was set on this course of action and had no real choice. He knew Buffy and Willow were less than happy with him about all this, but they didn't understand quite what he had taken up as his personal quest.

To protect Earth he had to put aside his younger self almost entirely, though he would be damned to the ninth level of hell before he let it go altogether.

Xander looked up to see Rak'nah looking around the Krakken's bridge with awe, and he smiled slightly.

His 'First Prime' was turning out to be an interesting guy. He was an oddly spiritual man, but a warrior from his toes to the top of his head, and that was some distance given the guy had to be at least seven foot tall. He was broadly muscled with a few scars around the place that showed well the battles he had been in, and his eyes while awed were also taking everything in.

"What do you think Rak'nah?"

"It is a most impressive ship, my Lord."

"Thank you." Xander said with a slight smile. "Her name is the Krakken."

"A strong sounding name" Rak'nah said approvingly.

"It is a mythical beast from Earth that was said to slay mighty sea vessels from the depths of the sea."

"Fitting," Rak'nah said with a slight smile, obviously thinking of what this very vessel had done to his own mother ship.

"I will teach you how to use the various controls in time. In the meantime I have two more things to do before we can go and get your family and the families of the other Jaffa Warriors."

Rak'nah actually looked a little surprised, as if he had not truly been expecting Xander to follow through on his promise.

"Shouldn't take long, Rak'nah,. Just some protection for Earth while I'm gone, and dropping off the girls."

"Your consorts," the large Jaffa said with a slow nod.

Xander smothered a laugh but Rak'nah apparently had not finished, "They seem more than worthy to be your consorts, my Lord, but there are many Jaffa women who would also be willing."

Xander really hoped Buffy and Willow didn't hear him saying stuff like that, he really did.

-xXx-

"Will you be alright?" Buffy asked her male friend.

"Yep I'll be fine." Xander assured her.

"But all those – what are they called?"

"Jaffa, Buff. They think I'm their god so they'll do as I ask."

"But what if they find out you're not."

"I have a plan, now I know a bit more about the Goa'uld to make sure they don't doubt me." Xander told her.

"What plan?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

"Let's just say there are a few side effects of being saturated in Nanites that I can take advantage of," Xander said, concentrating on communicating his desire via his wet works to the Nanites in his system. Several around his eyes then emitted the glow that showed they were doing some work and his eyes appeared to suddenly glow a golden colour.

"Whoa - freaky" Buffy said taking a step back. "Do I need to slay you?"

"It's just a special effect, Buff. I can change my voice too I think, but when I was practising earlier it sure hurt my throat."

Willow walked into the room at that point and smiled at them both.

"We ready?"

"Yep, just checking out his freakishness," Buffy said.

Willow raised an elegant brow at that and then shrugged it off, "Play nice with the Jaffa, Xan," she said giving her friend a hug.

"I will, Wills; they're alright once you get to know them. Besides I'm only off to invade a sector of space, nothing unusual, huh?"

Buffy and Willow both got a guppy expression on their face as Xander triggered the Transmat and they disappeared in a swirl of green lights.

Xander sniggered, and triggered another Transmat before turning to start sending satellites out towards earth on a bomber designed for just that sort of thing.

-xXx-

Parker Abraham was not having a good time. First he had disappeared in the middle of class only to appear in a vat of foul smelling goo for a few minutes, and then when finally he had appeared back in the middle of class soaked in the stuff it was as if he hadn't left.

After being told off for making a mess, he had been kicked out of the class for the day with no mention of the fact he had been god damned teleported out.

No one would go near him, as no matter how many showers he had he still seemed to stink of the stuff and that obviously put a crimp in his night life.

To top it off as he was walking back to the dorms he suddenly disappeared in a swirl of green lights and reappeared in a dark room, though at least this time he didn't land in the goo.

He seemed to be standing there a long time when suddenly lights came on, blinding him for several seconds. When finally his eye sight cleared he smiled as it appeared his day was suddenly getting a lot better. He was in a large room and surrounded by riches beyond his dreams of avarice. Gems of all shapes and sizes were piled in every direction in haphazard dumps, some almost up to his head. He immediately reached out to grab some.

Which is when his hand suddenly seemed to start glowing and as he pushed forward he found it harder and harder to move, until finally there was a solid wall of golden glow and he couldn't move an inch.

Just as suddenly as it had arrived, the gold wall disappeared and he launched himself at the pile of what looked to be diamonds. He landed head first and threw some up in the air with delight. This quickly turned to horror as they all glowed golden for a second and then turned to the dreaded Goo. The Goo then landed back on his with a wet slop noise and he was almost upended when the entire pile around him also turned to goo.

He wiped the foul muck from his eyes just in time to see a weird computer screen looking thing appear in mid-air, on it the words. "When you have something precious - you should never let go, or abuse it" appeared. He looked at it dumbly for a moment and then disappeared in a swirl of green lights.

_Bridge of the Krakken - Space_

Several hours later Rak'nah Transmated in to find Xander toying with some sensor readings using his godly powers, or that was how it appeared to Rak'nah at least. The young godling was surrounded by floating displays of the like the Jaffa had never seen before, each showing something different about the gargantuan vessel which they were in at that moment. It was beyond the Jaffa's ken so far, but Xander had promised to teach him the basics of all the systems so he could better serve his god. Rak'nah felt proud of his elevation thus far, despite the fact he could be called Shol'va by some.

This god was unlike any that Rak'nah had come across in his time as a Jaffa. He seemed to care for the Jaffa under his command while effortlessly wielding such power as to make a lesser god tremble. All the while looking like an earth teenager, or some of the younger warriors from Rak'nah's own home world. He could be many hundreds of years old, Rak'nah himself was 150 years of age, and he knew the gods could live much longer than any Jaffa could hope to.

"My lord…" Rak'nah began only to be cut off as Xander raised a hand.

"I know - we are in the correct system, yes?"

"Yes, my lord. Indeed your powers are mighty."

Xander rolled his eyes "Rak'nah I'm looking at a navigational array. It's not that difficult to work out where I am." he said with a smirk. He waved away the holographic displays and turned to face the mighty Jaffa, looking up into his eyes.

"Of course, my lord. I apologise."

"No need. Now I see there are several pyramid motherships heading our way already." Xander paused, smiled, then said "Good. I have a new battle plan for them this time. I see five this time around."

"Indeed, my Lord," Rak'nah said with another slight eye widening. He had been getting reports from the pyramid ship that was trailing them; the one he had once served on. This god had ways of his own of knowing what was going on apparently. This was a good thing the Jaffa concluded; it was good for a commander to know his battlefield. It was just another thing different about his new god.

"Hail them. Warn them off, and in the meantime I'll ready the Krakken, order our mothership to raise shields and stay behind us and the approaching ships."

"As you command," Rak'nah said, pausing for a moment.

"Well, get on with it then, Rak'nah. You don't have to wait to be dismissed if I've given you an order." Xander said with another eye roll as Rak'nah disappeared in a swirl of green lights. This time not at the Jaffa; he was only acting as he had been taught, but rather at the Goa'uld. It was ridiculous to make soldiers wait on pomp and circumstance in the heat of battle, or the run up to it. Almost suicidal in point of fact; he could not understand the so-called gods at all. They had been around for thousands upon thousands of years and had seemed to learn very little in their long lives.

Xander turned his attention back to the front viewscreen and with a wave of his hand and a tap on his neural interface showed the approaching configuration of motherships. It was almost as if they rarely fought each other ship to ship, but he knew that wasn't true from the ships computer of his mothership. They often engaged each other in battle over border disputes and the like, but their approach was clumsy; all brute force and arrogance.

"Computer, initiate voice command as per my standing orders," Xander said calmly.

"Confirmed"

"Turn us to side on, ready plasma canons all racks, rail guns all racks and initiate new shield protocols. Ready the Expulsor Canons and power up the missile bays. This time I'm not giving them a chance to mess around."

"Confirmed. All systems report green across the board. New shield protocols enabled and showing excellent responses."

Xander nodded and waved a hand, bringing up a direct comms channel to his first prime. "Rak'nah, you are ready on the mothership now?"

"I am my Lord. Our hails have been ignored."

Xander nodded, "Very well." Then suddenly smiled slightly, his eyes fixed to the incoming vessels. "On second thoughts, power main engines and drive us towards them, head on. We'll cause some chaos and make them think twice about attacking us."

"Shield baffles will not be as strong on a direct vector commander."

"Strong enough with the new protocols," Xander replied to the computer's warning.

Xander's eyes remained glued to the front viewscreen as the seconds ticked by, watching the ships getting closer and closer by the moment. "Initiate firing pattern alpha five, all weapons on the lead ship, then when the shields are down and we've hulled it, move on to each in turn."

"Confirmed."

Xander didn't need to see the tactical overlay to know the lead pyramid ship was taking a pounding as all of the Phase Canons unleashed their energy onto the ship's shields while the slower missile volley was launched. Then with a blinking green light the lead vessel was suddenly neutralised and the next mothership icon began to blink red to show it was now taking fire. Hundreds of smaller craft were launched from the motherships, some slightly larger than the others.

"Grab an Al'kesh for me with the forward tractor beam." Xander ordered, tapping his communications array again. "Rak'nah, prepare to receive prisoners, also send out an order for their unconditional surrender."

"It will be done, my Lord Xander." Rak'nah said, his eyes alight with the battle he was watching on his own tactical displays.

Xander mentally directed the captured Al'kesh towards the mothership behind him and turned his attention back to his displays. So far the shields were holding up very well. It was merely a matter of changing their oscillation so that the mothership's weapons didn't interfere with his shielding. They were currently holding at 99.9%, and it didn't appear that there would be a change any time soon.

Another red icon turned green and another pyramid ship icon turned red, even as hundreds of fighters swarmed Xander's position. "Create a perimeter and destroy anything that enters it. Use the rail guns and plasma racks 10-20 if you need them."

"Confirmed," chimed the voice of the computer softly, totally unmoved by the carnage happening outside.

Xander watched another icon turn green and the remaining two Motherships begin to turn tail and run. "Fire experimental missile one" Xander said, on the edge of his seat.

The missile fired and leapt across the distance separating the ships, flying past the escaping ships and hitting the Hyper Space field that was forming in front of them. The explosion caused a cascade effect and collapsed the field, leaving the mother ships stranded. "Fire Expulsor Canons one and two, one for each ship."

The two muscular beams of energy leapt out and did to the escaping ships, much as what had happened before when fired against a pyramid ship.

Xander sat back in his chair as both icons blinked to green and smirked in a satisfied manner. "Much better. Now put all of the ships on a tractor beam," he keyed his comms to Rak'nah and said, "Call for their surrender again, this time I think they will listen."

"Yes, my Lord," Rak'nah said, wide eyed.

"Also - make them the same offer we made our Jaffa. If they refuse, separate them out onto a single Al'kesh, disable its controls and send it towards the nearest Chappa'ai." Xander said using terms he had only learned that day, but it was important at this stage to appear to be an all knowing god, so a little homework was just what the doctor had ordered.

Besides it had been an eye-opening experience. He now knew that he wasn't the only human out in the stars, not counting various seeds from the Goa'uld, there was the famous Stargate program from the "Tau'ri" as humans from earth were known.

It was nice to know that humans were adventuring, but amusing to realise they were causing problems for themselves in the process. It also bolstered his own feelings about why he was out there with such fire power. He was definitely there for a reason, and he suspected what he was doing there and then was going to go a long way to helping him do it.

.com/site/yokonamy/


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Nine**

_Poc'nah - Space_

By time Xander reached the first planet in his to do list he had a veritable armada of vessels floating along behind him. He was never one to waste a resource and the motherships now under his command were an amazing resource. He had encountered several patrols and focused attacks from the protectors of the system they were in, but they had barely even slowed him down.

A surprising number of the Jaffa had also come across to his team, as it were, and were running the limping ships for him. Rak'nah was his emissary and he was turning out to be amazing at his job. He was a leader among his people, or rather was now. The potential had always been there, Xander was sure, but it was now being given voice via Xander and he was turning out to be the most valuable asset under Xander's command. If not for Rak'nah Xander had a feeling he would have had to battle much harder to gain the Jaffa's trust.

He had of course had to show off some of his godly powers, namely a few technical tricks he had up his sleeve, but they were more than enough to convince the Jaffa that he was the real deal. In truth he felt bad about that, but in a strange sort of way he was now doing this for the Jaffa as well. They were a wonderful people, proud and strong warriors each, and they were crushed under the heel of the Goa'uld in a way that Xander intensely disliked.

He looked down at the rotating ball of earth and rock with a smile. It was Earth-like and yet not Earth. Beautiful, and yet terrifying at the same time. Mostly because it was a planet that he had to in some way take over and he was still a little uncertain as to how to go about that. He could pound it into submission from space but that would likely kill most of the people he had gone there to protect. This would obviously not be a smart move.

He targeted the planets' defences and unleashed his various weapons on them; the lower powered the better the way Xander saw it. In approximately two minutes he had left the planets defenceless from attack. Which was something he didn't like the idea of either, and yet he had no choice, otherwise they would turn those weapons upon him.

"Rak'nah," Xander turned to his first prime, who had Transmat'd across when they had reached the planet. "Inform them of why we are here and ask for their peaceful surrender."

"If my Lord allows, we should attack this," Rak'nah said pointing towards what appeared to be some sort of bunker on the viewscreen. "I think that will get them to listen more than my voice alone."

Xander looked at his First Prime seriously for a long moment, "More can be done with a kind word and a gun than a kind word alone?"

The Jaffa's brow creased but he nodded anyway.

With no outward appearance of what he was about to do Xander targeted the building and fired upon it with a mental command from his neural wet works. "I suggest you strike while the iron is hot" Xander said with a heavy voice. Was it truly worth it? To protect his planet and the people now under his command he was committing large scale murder and that didn't sit well with him. He was pragmatic enough to see the reason for doing it, but he didn't like it a single bit.

As the Jaffa made the various demands and laid out the terms of their surrender Xander sat back and flashed his eyes occasionally. So far he was avoiding speaking as much as possible. It was expected of him to use the dual tone voice and frankly it hurt to make the Nanites in his system work his voice box like that, so he remained the silent god.

It was actually having quite an effect on the various Jaffa he had dealt with so far, and they were fairly used to being ordered around by a Jaffa anyway.

Rak'nah earned Xander's gratitude and respect once again. He was actually from the planet the Krakken was orbiting and he knew the leader of the Jaffa there. There were words like 'Shol'va' bandied around, but somehow Rak'nah managed to turn it around on the elderly Master Jaffa and browbeat him, talk him round and whatever else worked, until finally the Jaffa Master stepped down from his hard-nosed stand point. It was obvious they were beaten from the force Xander had at his command, but the call to Apophis had already gone out.

This was actually a good thing in Xander's opinion. It would be better to face the bastard and get something done than play around in the background. It was in Xander's mind to annex the entire system of space. It wasn't huge, but it was easily defensible. To that end Xander sent a tachyon message to his fleet and sat back and waited.

They had not been moving at FTL for a while now with all the fighting that had been involved. It was all with the aim of getting to the main planet in the system.

A few minutes later, as Rak'nah talked with the Jaffa Master, and they were suddenly surrounded with flashes as some of his fleet arrived. Everything from cruisers to mining barges swarmed around them in a cascade of lights.

The elderly Jaffa looked off to the side, obviously at some sort of sensor array and his eyes widened.

Xander was fairly sure one of his cruisers could go one to one with a Goa'uld Mothership, but that wasn't his plan. He was going to use the replication plants on each vessel for his master game plan instead. He scanned the area for a good source of materials and sent the barges off with a fighter escort. "This system belongs to me now," he said with the eerie harmonic in full effect in his voice.

_Apophis' Mothership - Space_

"My lord Apophis," a Jaffa called out from the communications array in Apophis' Mothership.

"Jaffa Kree," the false god said, his eyes flashing with annoyance at being disturbed from his plotting.

"We have received message from Poc'nah."

"What of it?"

"It is under attack My Lord."

Apophis' eyes glowed again, "Who dares?"

"Unknown my Lord, but they have a mighty vessel leading a fleet of motherships and have made the planet surrender, my Lord."

"Cowards, all of them. I shall deal with this immediately. Set course."

_Poc'nah Orbit - Space_

Several hours later Xander sat with one leg lazily thrown over his command chair looking through a report from one of the many Pyramid ships now under his control. Things were going to plan and everything was just in time. Even now he could see Apophis' fleet approaching him from only a few minutes out. It was much larger than Xander had hoped, along the lines of 'holy crap it's big', in fact. Xander was worried, but he wasn't showing any of it to the Jaffa at his side. No, instead he merely said, "They come," in his dual tone voice adding an eye flash to show some annoyance.

"Jaffa Kree," Rak'nah commanded, pulling himself up short when Xander raised a hand.

"Calm yourself Rak'nah. Stand down from battlestations."

"My Lord?" The big Jaffa said in confusion.

"Are the Satellites in place?"

"They are, my Lord, but what can a satellite do that we cannot?" The Jaffa around Rak'nah shifted at the big First Prime's audacity.

Xander smiled slightly, "You still doubt me Rak'nah?"

"Of course not, my Lord! I apologise."

"No need; all will become clear shortly. They arrive now."

Dozens of flashes appeared across the space in front of Xander's Krakken as Apophis' fleet arrived and began to hammer his ship with fire.

Xander glanced at the shield readings then settled himself back in his chair. He could do this all day; he knew they couldn't. He mentally opened a channel and smiled, "I wish to converse with the false god Apophis."

There was a slight gasp from some of the weaker-willed Jaffa on the command deck, but Xander ignored it. This would be an interesting lesson for them if it worked. If it didn't they'd all be dead soon anyway.

The fire intensified if anything, but there was no direct response from Apophis.

The viewscreen turned to a tactical display. Xander was using his wet works almost exclusively during that battle. He wanted to make it appear as if he was using magic to interact with his ship. He targeted a random ship and fired Expulsor Canons three to five in it. There was barely a pause as the massive fire-power tore through the ship.

Rather than hold off as he had been doing he let the energy weapon rip the ship to shreds, causing it to explode into tiny chunks after a few moments firing.

Then he repeated the process a few times, trying not to think of the loss of life he was causing. The big Mothership in the middle of the pack suddenly backed off a little, though it was already obvious to Xander where Apophis was hiding. The other motherships were filling in the gap and causing a solid shield with their hulls.

"I repeat. I wish to talk to Apophis."

The view screen wavered for a moment and then Apophis appeared in his entire Egyptian god-looking glory.

"Who dares?"

"I do. My name is Yokonamy, but that is of little import. What is important is that you are invading my property!"

"This space belongs to me, the one true god."

"Not anymore," Xander told him, "And while you're about it stay away from Earth or I will summarily destroy you and your worthless fleet."

Apophis laughed mockingly "You think you are more powerful than I?"

"I know it, false god."

Apophis' eyes glowed with anger, "I will destroy you this day." he said, attempting to cut off his communication to no avail. As they had been talking Xander had been directing his massive computers AI intellect into Apophis' systems and was slowly shutting him out of his own systems.

"The next time we talk will be to deliver my terms," Xander said shutting off both ends of the communication and smirking. Suddenly Apophis was beset by massive energy fire as every one of the satellites Xander had managed to build were all firing on his position from around the planet, the planet he had backed towards to get away from Xander.

Xander smirked as he watched the large Mothership light up with the plasma fire and then timed it, just as the big ship was hulled in places, turning off the satellites and reopening the comms as he cut off the artificial gravity across Apophis' ship. He was greeted with the sight of the false god floating upside down holding onto the arm of his throne.

"Leave this space or I will destroy you." Xander said, "Come back and I will obliterate you."

"I will have my revenge" Apophis vowed even as Xander triggered the big ship's drives and sent the annoying god away without a thought.

"He will return" Rak'nah told him seriously.

"I know, and he will be given a great gift upon his return." Xander replied as he watched the remainder of the fleet that Apophis had brought with him jump after their god.

"A great victory has happened here today," Rak'nah followed on to say.

"Merely a beginning in a larger war Rak'nah; merely a beginning," Xander said with a sad smile.

Xander concentrated his neural interface towards the ships he had hiding behind the planet.

"Let us begin to prepare for his eventual arrival."

Rak'nah nodded his agreement and bowed in respect. "It shall be done as you ordered, Lord Yokonamy."

_The SGC, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado – Day_

"Incoming wormhole," Walter called out as was his normal task, even as he slapped his hand down on the button to close the Iris over the ancient device.

"Report," Hammond demanded walking into the command centre of the gate room.

"Incoming Wormhole," Walter repeated, "Origin unknown. We're receiving the Tok'ra IDC now sir."

"Open the Iris," Hammond ordered as his Second in Command rushed into the control centre.

"Oh joy, the Tok'ra" he snarled before he had even stopped moving. Behind him the rest of his team arrived in time to hear his statement, and their responses were no more enthusiastic.

There was a short pause and then their least favourite Tok'ra walked out of the event horizon of the wormhole, looking like a thousand bucks and trouble combined into one female headache.

"Yikes," Jack said under his breath, not at her attire but because it had to be Anise who came to them again. She was really ragging on his last nerve, which was already frayed in regards to the Tok'ra.

"General Hammond. Colonel O'Neill. I have come with urgent news that the Council sends with its regards" the beautiful Tok'ra informed them, looking up at the control room expectantly.

"We'll meet in the briefing room," Hammond decided aloud, and walked off to do just that. He had found in his career it was usually best to arrive first to attain dominance over the room and, with the tricky Tok'ra involved, he would need every trick at his disposal.

-xXx-

"So, Anise. What can the SGC do for you today?" Hammond asked pleasantly.

"It is more what the Tok'ra can do for you, General." Anise replied equally pleasantly.

"Oh, do tell," O'Neill said sarcastically.

"This is rather important news which has only just come to our attention today, so we suggest you action it as soon as possible."

"Go on," Hammond pressed her.

Anise nodded, "Earlier today Apophis was defeated in battle while trying to take back the Poc'nah planet. It was one of his training worlds for Jaffa and of little strategic importance. What is interesting is that the self-proclaimed god named Yokonamy not only defeated him and warned him away from Poc'nah, but also Earth itself."

"Yokonamy, that's not a Goa'uld I'm familiar with," Daniel Jackson offered to the conversation with a half frown.

"Nor are we, Doctor Jackson," Anise agreed.

"It is not a name I recognise either," Teal'c said almost expressionlessly, "though I know of Poc'nah. It is of little value other than it is home to several million Jaffa and associated training facilities."

"Our analysis is the same," Anise nodded her agreement again.

"What then of this Yokonamy?" Daniel asked again. "Do we have any idea what mythology he is from because he doesn't sound familiar at all? Is he even a Goa'uld?"

"Our agent on Apophis' Mothership reported that he appeared to be Goa'uld but was dressed unlike any other Goa'uld seen before, wearing a dark uniform with gold piping. He now leads several million Jaffa as his own, as he took the entire system for his own."

"Why would he want to protect Earth?" Carter asked leaning forward in her seat, blue eyes alight.

"That is the question the Council would like to ask you."

"Ohhh, I get it," O'Neill said with a nasty smile. "Now I see where this is going."

Anise creased a pretty frown at him. "I am not sure I follow, Colonel. We only wish to ascertain information on this new threat."

"Yeah, but you didn't come here to give us any information, just to – ascertain it."

"I really do not understand."

"Stand down, Colonel. Anise, we are an alliance are we not? Should we not work together to find out information on this new System Lord?"

"He is not a System Lord." Anise corrected. "Though he and his unusual ship are powerful, none of our contacts know anything about him. The System Lords are a special group of Goa'uld rather than a generic term for the whole."

Hammond smiled to show he understood. "That said, the question remains the same."

"We had hoped you would know as it is your planet he appears to want to protect, as well as Poc'nah."

"Why does he want that planet in particular? Both you and Teal'c have said there is no strategic value there. It has a fair few Jaffa on it," Carter put forth. "So why would a System Lord want to protect Jaffa? I've always been under the impression they are used as little more than slaves."

"That is correct," Teal'c said with a nod of his head.

"Then why?" Sam said, sitting back and looking thoughtful.

"Something to do with the Jaffa, then?" Jackson surmised, tapping his chin in thought.

"And why Earth? What's up with that?" Jack asked the room as a whole. "I mean we're not really of any real value strategically, are we."

"Other than for hosts." Jackson said, causing a chill in the room.

"We need to find out what he wants with us, and we need to find out now." Hammond decided after Jackson's comment.

Just then the klaxon that signalled an incoming wormhole suddenly blared out. They looked at each other and left the briefing room in a rush, straight down the stairs and into the control room that overlooked the gate room itself.

"It's Master Bra'tac's IDC General." Walter said as they arrived.

"Open the Iris" the General commanded, and the camera lens design of the Iris slid back from the gate with a heavy metal sound.

The elderly Jaffa Master stepped through shortly afterwards and raised an arm in greeting. "Hammond of Texas, Teal'c," he said by way of greeting. "I bring strange news to my human friends."

"Yokonamy," O'Neill hazarded as they all walked into the gate room to greet the Jaffa.

The Jaffa Master looked mildly impressed until he spotted the Tok'ra Anise following them. "I see your other Allies have already informed you of the new Goa'uld then."

"Yes, but we'd like to hear your perspective." Hammond smiled. If truth were told, he greatly admired the elderly Jaffa and much preferred to hear a fellow warrior's perspective than a Goa'uld in a short skirt. This was something he would never utter aloud.

They re-adjourned in the briefing room, and once they were seated the Jaffa Master began to talk. "It is strange. The reports I have been getting are from my Jaffa on not only Apophis' mother ship but also on Yokonamy's."

"You have operatives on this new Goa'ulds vessel itself?" Anise demanded to know.

The ancient Jaffa merely smiled before continuing. "One on his strange ship he calls the Krakken."

"From ancient mythology, a sea monster that sank many ships, it is said," Daniel filled in, happy to finally have something he recognised to talk about.

"Fitting" the Master said with a nod, "It is indeed a mighty vessel. At the final battle one of my Jaffa was fortunate enough to be invited by Yokonamy's First Prime Rak'nah" he said with a glance at Teal'c.

Teal'c showed a slight widening of his eyes and that was about it, but Jack picked up on it. "Friend T?"

"I know of him," Teal'c said tersely.

"Among the Jaffa there is a completion, a match of strength if you will," Bra'tac said with a half-smile. "While active in Apophis' ranks Teal'c was only beaten once."

"By this Rak'nah," Daniel asked curiously.

"Indeed"

"So, we know the First Prime. Can we use that?" Carter asked.

"Perhaps" Teal'c said slowly.

"So during the final battle…" Jack said leadingly.

Master Bra'tac took up the story. "It was a wondrous battle. Yokonamy destroyed several of Apophis' motherships before calling for his surrender, which of course was refused. Then he tricked Apophis into backing away from his ship and into some sort of net of weapons that obliterated Apophis' defences. Then, using his godly powers, and this is from of my Jaffa, controlled Apophis' mothership and sent it running away."

"Controlled his ship?" Sam asked, interest alight in her eyes.

"Remotely" Bra'tac assured her, "My Jaffa said that it was all done using his powers, but was uncertain as to how exactly he did it. It truly looked to him to be magic."

"There is no such thing as magic" Sam assured him.

"Perhaps, but this Yokonamy is certainly powerful." Bra'tac told her seriously. "Apophis did not have his entire fleet, but he had enough there to cause much damage and all Yokonamy used was his own strange vessel. I was unable to gain any information on this vessel other than to say it is very large and unlike anything a Goa'uld has used before."

"Why was this Yokonamy there?" Hammond asked guiding the conversation back to the important topics.

"To protect his Jaffa's families," Bra'tac said, surprising them all. "It is said he pledged to protect them all if they joined him, and thus far he has done exactly that."

"That is interesting," Hammond said slowly. This Yokonamy was acting quite differently than any Goa'uld he had heard of before.

"Is he a Goa'uld?" Sam asked suddenly with a slight shake of her head.

"He shows all the normal signs of being thus, yes," Master Bra'tac said with a nod of his head. "Other than his actions of course."

"We need more information," Anise put forth, her eyes showing her true intelligence.

"Indeed we do," Hammond agreed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Ten**

_Poc'nah - Day_

Xander and Rak'nah arrived in the main square of the main population centre of the planet in a swirl of green lights. Many of the nearby Jaffa took a step back from their sudden appearance with a gasp and fear on their features. Xander knew it was both a good thing and a bad thing. It would help his godly persona, but in truth he was already tiring of the whole god thing. He didn't like to trick these proud people, but for now it was necessary for both their and his survival. When the time came he hoped to have built some mechanism by which they could support themselves, and hopefully still be aligned with him when he 'freed' them to their own ends. He just wanted to make sure they did not just turn to the nearest 'god' and go back to their old ways. That said, at the end of the day that would be their choice, and Xander was not about to take their freedom of choice away from them.

They were met by a procession and honour guard of elaborately dressed Jaffa in what had to be ceremonial armour. Some of the guards had cobra headed helmets that stuck Xander as funny, and it was all he could do not to laugh at them. Once again he reminded himself that this was not his world or culture, and that these were their ways. He had to admit, though, unless they were very light but heavily armoured he could not see a real use in combat for such headgear.

Eventually the procession, which passed through most of the town, entered a large building not far from the building that Xander had turned to rubble earlier. The building itself was almost a temple and had many exotic works of art along its walls and soft linens hanging from the ceiling.

"Lord Yokonamy I am Frae'Tar, the Jaffa Master of Poc'nah."

The elderly Jaffa Master that Rak'nah had talked to before approached them. He was replete in old and strong looking armour and cut quite the warrior dash. He was an old man, probably much older than the 70 he appeared to be, with a salt and pepper beard, a skull cap and bright intelligent blue eyes.

Using the horribly scratchy Goa'uld voice Xander replied,

"Greetings, Master Jaffa."

Rak'nah stepped forward knowing well that his Lord didn't like to waste words.

"We are pleased with your welcome Jaffa Master" he told the much smaller Jaffa with a bow.

The elderly Jaffa smiled broadly at them both and waved a hand. Suddenly attractive female Jaffa appeared with various delicacies from the planet and surrounding systems and laid them on a table in front of the group.

"If my Lord so wishes, we have prepared a feast."

Xander eyed the groaning table with a little worry; he wasn't expected to eat ALL of that was he?

"Thank you Frae'Tar. I am pleased."

The Jaffa master looked surprised by the praise and pointed to an ornate chair at the head of the table.

"If my lord wishes?"

Xander took the seat and was quickly surrounded on both sides by fine female flesh. He glanced to the left at the beautiful blonde haired Jaffa and then to the right at the beautiful brunette Jaffa, and smiled. It was a good job the gang wasn't there to see him he decided. He waved a vague hand at the others

"Sit. I do not wish to eat alone" he intoned, watching the surprised look on the Jaffa's faces as they sat down with their god.

"Are my people catered for during this feast?"

"I'm sorry my lord?" the Jaffa Master asked.

"Do they have food to eat during this feast?"

Frae'Tar looked confused, even as Rak'nah appeared to realise what Xander was talking about.

"If my Lord commands?" his First Prime said.

Xander nodded, and Rak'nah arranged for a large portion of the enormous meal to be shared out as far as it would go in the temple and beyond its walls.

"It isn't a feast if my people are not feasting too, is it now," Xander asked curiously.

"My lord, previous urh, rulers, did not treat their Jaffa with such – respect," Rak'nah told him. "The Jaffa here do not realise you are a wise and generous god."

Xander nodded his agreement; the statement was obviously true illustrated by the way various Jaffa were looking at him. "I am not like the others," he said clearly in somewhat of a double meaning. He was kinder for sure, but neither was he a god, but he wasn't about to blurt that fact out just yet.

"Are my people here well cared for?" Xander asked carefully. "Do they have medical facilities, all the food they require?"

"We are well sire," Frae'Tar told him looking a little shifty as he did so.

"I wish only the truth. You will not be punished for the truth."

"Winter comes, my Lord, and with it much hard living. There is illness to the north that our Prim'ta struggle to contain."

Xander mentally looked up the word and nodded seriously, "A grave situation indeed." He said reaching out to his ship via his wet works and starting some broad spectrum antibiotic production. He also arranged for the Resequencer plant to begin production of some simple food stuffs which the Jaffa could warehouse for the winter. Luckily, he knew his antibiotics would easily kill just about everything illness related. Hell, it might even solve their problem of being reliant on the Larval Goa'uld, but that was for another day. First he had to ensure they were cared for while he was away. He still had much to do back in what he was now calling Sector Two, his little system close to Earth.

"The matters you have brought to my attention will shortly be resolved." Xander told the Jaffa Master. "Always keep me up to date without fear that I will punish you. I wish to be informed of all problems my Jaffa face."

"Thank you, my Lord. You are most caring." Frae'Tar said, looking confused as all hell.

"Now we must talk of protections for the planet and the training I wish my Jaffa to undergo."

_Sunnydale University Campus – Day_

Buffy turned to her red haired friend "I'm worried."

"About what, as if I couldn't guess," Willow said with a hidden smirk.

"Xander. He's not been in contact since he left to do his stuff, and that was a couple of days ago now."

"I'm sure he's fine. I don't think there is much out there that can get past his technology, and besides, he's different now. He seems to think things through a bit before acting. Lord knows, he needed to learn that lesson." Willow mused, thinking it was something they all needed to work on really.

"Still… anything could be going on up there," Buffy said pointing her head up towards the sky.

Willow nodded thoughtfully, "I'm sure he's okay," she said after a moment.

"Yeah I suppose…" Buffy trailed off when Parker Abrahams walked carefully up to the two of them. "Yes?" she said bluntly.

"I urh, look I wanted to say I was sorry for you know – how I treated you" the dark haired young man said nervously. His eyes were flicking around and upwards as if waiting for something nasty to happen to him.

Buffy and Willow shared an amused look. "Okay" Buffy said after a moment.

"Oh – okay," Parker said looking at her for a long moment before turning away and walking off, still glancing around him every few seconds.

"That was weird," Willow said with a smirk. "I think whatever Xander is doing is getting to him."

"Yeah, maybe I should ask him to stop."

There was a pause and then they both said, "NAH"

_A Day Later Sector Two – Space_

Xander let out a sigh as his carrier drifted to a standstill just outside of what would become his base of operations.

Everything was moving so fast he could barely keep up himself. He had fortified the planet of Poc'nah to his satisfaction and then left to come home only to find that his base of operations was only about 50% complete. Had he not been distracted then perhaps he could have made that a much higher number. After all, Earth was where he really wanted to protect. That said, however, he now had other responsibilities that were almost as important to him. The Jaffa were happy; he could count that in his favour of things to check off his to do list.

In a way they were also important to the protection of Earth from threats from Space. They would man his outpost/station and keep him informed at all times via his neural wet works system. He would know if there was a problem almost as soon as they did. On the way back to Earth he had begun training the first of them who would then go on to train others, and so on down the line until he had a fully trained fighting force. He also had brought back several of the Pyramid shaped Motherships from Poc'nah, and the Jaffa of course needed no training on how to fight with their own equipment. He had taught them new ways to work with that equipment, however; ways that would improve their chances in one on one capital ship battles.

Other than that he had much to do in his home system of both, Sector One, Sol and now Sector Two where he planned to keep his major base for space operations. He had to finish the base off for one thing and then start stocking it, finish training the Jaffa, and a host of other small tasks he could perform out in space before venturing back to Earth to visit with his friends. The Transmat buffer was now in place, floating in a nebula just between the two systems and allowing him to almost instantly Transmat from his ship to anywhere on Earth he pleased; which was as well as he already missed his friends.

Back in 10010 his father and new friends had helped to fill in the void left when leaving his original friends and family. Here and now, with them so close, he wanted nothing more than to go to them, hold on and never let go. He could not do that though; he had to prepare himself for anything he could conceive of, and anything his now most trusted Jaffa 'second in command' Rak'nah could think of too.

They had put their heads together already a few times and brain-stormed various contingencies for space based attack, but he was aware that the large Jaffa didn't know what to think about demonic attack. At least not yet; he had to get the man down to Earth in an appropriate disguise and show him demons. If the Jaffa were willing to believe in gods, they would almost certainly be able to believe in demons. The trouble with that mechanism of thought was that it may go toward firming their thoughts about their gods, and Xander was not entirely sure he wanted them to think that if he could help it. It was important to his future plans that they started to think for themselves. He did plan on freeing them one day after all and they needed to think that way to protect themselves. Not that he would just desert them like that anyway.

He was also worried about fielding a Jaffa force on Earth. He was not sure quite how his Government would appreciate him having a standing force of alien warriors at his beck and call. He would just have to jump off that bridge when it came to it.

With a slight sigh Xander sat back in his command chair, wondering at the strange twists of fate that had made it his command chair for real. The plan was to put him in command of the fleet for the few weeks it would take to travel from his Father's base of operations to the new outpost. Now he would forever be the commander of the fleet as far as the computer was concerned, without override from him personally and not under duress. The AI was clever enough to know the difference after all. He was sure the Government would have something to say about that as well. He did after all have the capability to wipe out entire continents if he so chose. That would certainly make them nervous. He was still unsure how much he should tell the Government but, given that aliens where on their backdoor already, someone would have to tell them something soon.

Just then his eyes drifted down to one of his arm consoles and his brow rose in silent question. Someone on his ship had just sent a communication from his ship using a Jaffa, or rather Goa'uld frequency. Was this some sort of treachery or something else?

"Rak'nah," Xander said dropping the Goa'uld voice for his first prime; he didn't need to hear the voice to know Xander was in charge around the place after all.

"My Lord Yokonamy," Rak'nah said, moving into attention beside his much smaller god.

"Someone just sent an encoded communication on Goa'uld frequencies from this ship. Find them and bring them before me."

The 7 foot tall Jaffa looked around angrily, as if expecting the traitor to appear before his eyes, before barking out commands in his native tongue. Jaffa all around the bridge jumped into action and, spurred on from vague co-ordinate information from Xander himself, went off in search of the possible traitor in their midst.

"They will be found, my Lord."

"Of course" Xander said, knowing that his First Prime would not fail him. So far, since meeting him the large Jaffa he had never let Xander down, and in all honesty Xander couldn't see him starting now.

It took an hour before a badly beaten Jaffa was brought before Xander looking defiantly at his captors.

"Who did you contact?" Xander asked mildly, glaring at the men who had brought one of his Jaffa before him in such a state. He had not asked them to beat him, just bring him. They both paled at his obvious wrath and took a careful step backwards. The Lord Yokonamy had shown much mercy to various Jaffa since they had known him, but this could be when he reverted to the usual treatment they got from gods.

Xander left it at a glare and decided to talk to them later. In the meantime, the Jaffa had pulled himself almost upright and was glaring at Xander with fire in his eyes. Xander actually liked to see that look there; it was the fire of rebellion and that was something that Xander had wanted to see from the Jaffa since he had met them.

"I will tell you nothing," the Jaffa ground out, although obviously in pain.

Xander eyed him for a moment and mentally bade the Nanites in the area to focus on the Jaffa and heal his injuries, while leaving the baby Goa'uld alone for the moment. The Jaffa was lit with the strange golden glow that accompanied the Nanites working, and when they left him was looking much better. Also, he was looking highly surprised and worried.

"That was nothing but technological trickery, false god," the Jaffa spat, sounding much better.

Xander actually smiled. So far the little display of his tech shown to the Jaffa had been hailed as godly magic. "Interesting" Xander commented mildly as Rak'nah glared at the traitor with fire in his eyes. They had finally found a fine god and this fool wanted to go back to the old ways. Was he mad?

"You two" Xander said pointing to the Jaffa guards, "Leave us." The guards backed off with a bow and left feeling lucky to be alive since they had obviously displeased their god.

"Who are you? Are you actually a Jaffa."

"If you were truly a god, would you not know that?"

"Shol'va, mind your tongue," Rak'nah spat at the Jaffa.

"Are we not all Shol'va, First Prime of a false god?"

"What is your name?" Xander interjected, laying a hand on the forearm of his First Prime to hold him back.

"Jarlan, if it matters any, since I am doubtless about to die." Jarlan said with a world weary smile. He was only glad he had further reported this new god's involvement to his old Master Bra'tac before being caught.

Xander glanced down at his displays, happy to see the encoding had been broken by the ships AI easily enough. "It seems that you wish to tell someone of me, and I find that of great interest. Also, you are not about to die, Jarlan, in fact you interest me greatly. You call me a false god. Why?"

"All the Goa'uld are false gods. They pretend their godhood in order to better enslave the Jaffa under their command, and others races as well." Jarlan replied, slightly relaxing his posture at Yokonamy's words.

"Why does this person, who you do not name, want to know anything about me? Are they a rival, or something else?" Xander said, filing the false god information away for later. It appeared that not all Jaffa were as fooled as he had first thought, but that boded well for his own plans for his Jaffa.

"We watch all the Goa'uld" was the terse reply.

"At least you didn't tell him where we are. I want this base to remain at least nominally secret" Xander said wryly. He tilted his head at the Jaffa, regarding him from a new angle. This was a tricky situation for him. He sensed that not all Jaffa could, or would, follow this Jaffa's example or words. They needed their belief system for the moment; more, they needed their way of life and the Prim'ta that it brought with it. Without it, or an alternative, they would die out alarmingly quickly. Unless the organisation that Jarlan belonged to either intended to enslave the slavers, or had another like plan that was almost as bad as the current situation.

What did he do with Jarlan though? On one hand he had no wish or stomach for killing him, but if he did not he might appear weak to his Jaffa and he needed them more than they realised at that moment. On the other hand, if he let him go he may be able to forge an alliance with the movement Jarlan represented, and may just be able to sell that to his Jaffa also. Of course, the idea of a god explaining his actions in anyway was alien to many of his Jaffa at that time.

"Allow me to deal with him for you my Lord" Rak'nah purred dangerously.

"No, I would like to meet with your master, Jarlan, on neutral ground perhaps. I think we might have much to talk about." Xander said, holding back his First Prime again.

Rak'nah looked a little surprised, but he was quickly becoming used to being surprised around his new god. He sensed that he was totally unlike the other System lords Rak'nah had come across, or indeed the Goa'uld in general. He walked and talked like a Goa'uld when he wished to, but most of the time he was much more relaxed around Rak'nah than a Goa'uld would dream of. There was definitely something special about Yokonamy, and Rak'nah was sensing strongly that it boded well for himself in particular, and his people in general.

Jarlan on the other hand was totally floored by that little speech, and was obviously on the verge of falling apart deciding what to do about it.

"For now, you are free to go. In future, I will monitor all your communications and you are under orders not to try to leave this ship, but other than that you are free to move around." Xander said, hoping he wasn't making a horrible mistake in giving the Jaffa the freedom of movement. "Rak'nah, spread the word that he is not to be harmed." he added as an afterthought.

Sector Two - Space

Jarlan sat in his temporary quarters feeling completely bewildered. He had just openly defied a false god, a Goa'uld in all outward appearance, and had lived to tell the tale. When the Jaffa guards had come for him, he had known that his life was over. Imagine his surprise, when suddenly, he was forced to kneel before the false god. Deep within his own bones, he knew something wasn't right. The false god had shown concern for his well being and directed some of his magical technology to healing him. This was his first clue that the meeting wasn't going to be within the normal parameters that he was expecting. The questions, however, had seemed fairly standard, 'who do you work for', 'who are they' exactly type things to be expected, but the intent behind them was that of curiosity and not with a view to wiping them out. Now he found himself, sitting in his quarters while wondering what to do. He was on restrictions as to where he could go but by the Lord Yokonamy's orders he had been left with a communications device to contact his masters.

Should he do so? That seemed to be the question of the hour. It could all be a ruse to get at Master Bra'tac but something deep in his Goa'uld infested gut was telling Jarlan that this was not the case. The Lord Yokonamy, and Jarlan had trouble thinking of him any other way, wanted to talk to the elderly Jaffa master, not harm him. Jarlan didn't know what that conversation would entail exactly but he would love to be a fly on the wall during it.

He walked over to his comms device and looked at it, it was possible the Lord Yokonamy was going to try to trace this call, but this was some of the height of Jaffa technology, stolen from the Goa'uld, there was surely no way that this false god could track the signal, not with all the safe guards that they had built into it. The so called mighty System Lords themselves couldn't track these devices.

Mind made up Jarlan picked it up and opened a direct line to his old Jaffa Master.

-xXx-

Xander glanced at the viewscreen floating at his elbow as it flashed him a warning. He tapped the screen and it reported a few things to him making Rak'nah curious as to what his lord was doing. Xander noticed this and said, "Our friend with the god issues is contacting his superiors as we speak."

"Traitor, we have a fine and mighty lord finally and he acts thus it is a disgrace."

"Now, now Rak'nah he is only doing what he believes in, do you not believe that the Jaffa should be free to rule over their nations?"

This brought the huge Jaffa up short, it was only in his deepest, darkest dreams, buried deep within his soul that he had occasionally wondered what it would be like to live out from under the grinding heel of the Goa'uld; but he had never dared utter that thought to another.

"I do not know my lord, we are bred to serve."

"And you serve well, that is not to say that you could not serve each other as unified peoples."

"Are you able to trace the communication my lord?" Rak'nah asked while moving on from that troubling topic of conversation.

Xander nodded and tapped at another view screen, "Come closer my First Prime, and behold the wonders of this ship." He said with a smile and expanded the viewscreen cocoon much as he had for Willow only in a much larger direction for his first prime. Rak'nah squeezed in close to his Lord but dare not make physical contact lest he annoy his new god. Xander reached out and directed his First Prime's gaze to a display that was showing a map of the galaxy, a rather complete map at that. "I made this from the databases of the Ha'tak we've recovered and some extrapolation. It's a political map but you'll note that the blip is not moving towards any known Goa'uld locales. In fact I'm surprised to say that it is moving towards Earth."

"Earth, the system we are currently close to?"

"Indeed Rak'nah, indeed."

"What is your interest here; the Tau'ri is nothing but a bane to the Goa'uld?"

"Glad to hear it," Xander said with some amusement showing through his god act. He had read several collated reports of the trouble his people were causing the Goa'uld in particular Apophis who was the main false god at that moment in time thanks to his superior fleet. Xander knew that wouldn't last long especially if he came into direct combat with Xander's carrier again. He was fed up with fighting with the gloves on, next time they came off and he fought all out. He was technologically superior to everything in the galaxy as far as he could tell and he wasn't having some upstart Goa'uld threatening his planets again, either of them.

Rak'nah shot him a strange look but he was quickly getting used to the strangeness of his Lord Yokonamy who seemed to delight in the other god's bad luck thanks to the Tau'ri.

Stargate Command, Earth

General Hammond looked up at the knock to his door and saw Master Jaffa Bra'tac standing there waiting to be invited in. "Come in Master Bra'tac," George said genially.

"Hammond of Texas I have urgent news for you."

"What is it, anything I can do to help?"

"Perhaps, I have just received word from my spy aboard Yokonamy's ship. He has been uncovered and instead of being tortured to death this Yokonamy seeks an audience with me instead. Jarlan, for that is his name, assures me that he believes Yokonamy is being truthful when he says that he means me no harm."

George sat back in his leather chair and looked at Bra'tac seriously, "That's dangerous," he noted, "Very dangerous."

"Without risk, we will never end this conflict. If an ally can be found even amongst the false gods even for a short time, perhaps we should take it. My spy reports that he treats his Jaffa well, better than any other Goa'uld has before him. His first Prime who it has been confirmed as being Rak'nah is treated with respect and Jarlan was shown concern when a couple of Jaffa got carried away in their duties."

"Is he well?"

"Apparently fully healed thanks to some technology that the Lord Yokonamy has," Bra'tac replied easily. "He sounds to be an interesting ally for my people and yours too Hammond of Texas."

"He does, he seems almost too good."

"That was my thought as well."

"Would you like SG1 to accompany you to the meeting?"

"I would," Bra'tac decided.

"Where's the meet?"

"I have passed on an old base of the Tok'ra, one that I personally scouted out before and one of the few attached to a gate. I thought it as well to have an advantage."

"Sound thinking," Hammond applauded.

Bra'tac merely slightly inclined his head; he had been doing that sort of thinking for over a hundred years it just made sense to him.

Outskirts of Sol, Space

Xander looked out at the vista of space on the main view screen. By rights he should be down on the planet having a quiet drink with the girls at that time of day. He had certainly not planned for all the political maneuvering that he suddenly had to do. He had found out that day that the Jaffa was not such a lost cause as he had at first thought and that they were capable of thinking outside of the paradigm set for them by the Goa'uld. He had found out about an organization called the free Jaffa and another called the Tok'ra. The last name had been said to him as if he should know it. He understood it in theory, 'Against Ra' it had taken a quick search on his new found database to really understand them though, Goa'uld against Goa'uld in effect, Jaffa against Goa'uld, Humans against Goa'uld and Jaffa. It was all almost too much to take in and he was now smack dab in the middle of all of it. He had started out with such a seemingly simple goal. Look after planet earth and then he had protected it from an invader and things had gotten quickly complicated and he hadn't even started to look into the whole demon thing or the world hunger one he had promised Willow that he would. He was really started to regret that one. He was only one man, admittedly one man with a genius IQ and an entire fleet of ultra high tech ships at his beck and call but still only one man. That thought had led him to getting the Jaffa involved with him in the first place. Had he known the baggage they carried with them… well he still would have gotten involved but at least he would have been forewarned that way.

Luckily he was alone on the bridge so his sigh was not overheard as he sat back in his command chair and brought some systems online that he had not anticipated having to. Security came online; the full suite and the Nanites went into active mode, shoring up the hull and everything inside of it. He activated the internal defenses that had lain dormant to that point and a few of the more esoteric technological marvels on the ship. He brought the main guns online and charged them, they weren't the Expulsor canons they were the ships main form of offense in a capital ship fight for their time period. He was well aware that using them in this time period would be tantamount to murdering the opposing crew but he now had his own people to protect because every single one of the Jaffa on board were now under his protection along with nearly a billion more on a planet some distance away and several thousand on Ha'tak that were nearby.

Then with a final sigh he put the scanning systems on full power, this took them from passive to a more aggressive mode. The entire system and those around it suddenly appeared in much higher resolution than they had been before on his tactical display. "Computer, design and start construction of a mark fifty AI," Xander said in a dead sounding tone.

"Unable to comply this is against the Niamater Accord ruling."

"I am well aware of that but computer tell me what date was that ruling held?"

"By the current calendar calculations 8002 AD," the computer told him.

"So why are you taking any notice of a ruling that hasn't been passed yet by a body that won't exist for thousands of years."

The computer was silent for a long moment, "Unable to compute, relying on backup decision making programs, what is your command commander."

"I command you to start to design and build a mark fifty AI system for the Starbase codename: alpha one."

"Compliance," the computer intoned. "Design is underway."

"When the design is complete and its built have it design the next stage until we get to mark 100, make sure all the standard safety protocols are a base part of the programming on all and I mean all iterations of the design process. In particular I want you to add a primary protocol that it will always do as I say no matter what other protocols that violates even its own core."

"Working… done."

Xander knew he was taking an enormous risk there but he needed some help and a real live AI would be a great deal of help in running things while he wasn't around. It would in effect become a sort of 2IC to Xander himself and it would for the most part be in charge of the running of the mining operations and all station operations. He just hoped he hadn't just created a real life HAL.

"Start production on a version two of the current Nanite population for the station and once that is done produce some for here as well."

"Any particular commands for them Commander," the computer enquired.

"Yes, I want them to ignore certain types of energy in people, specifically the types found in the scans of my friend Willow."

"Compliance," the computer told him, "current work load will take one hundred hours for the computer design job and three hours for the nanite reprogramming and production."

Xander nodded to himself more than the computer and relaxed back in his chair once more, "Take the current on board fleet out of moth balls and begin construction of simulators."

"Then I want you to direct any of the weaker ships into the geode right now. It will offer them some protection at least."

"Are we going to war commander?"

"Maybe, maybe, oh set course for the Stargate address we got earlier, I converted the address to Autolang."

"Yes Commander."

Xander then put up his feet and watched the stars begin to streak by, "Set a factor of five we're in no rush."

"We are at speed Commander."

Abandoned Tok'ra Base, Day

The transmat let go of Xander leaving him amongst an arid terrain. He had come alone, as was the request, with only him in his uniform and all the gear that went on that uniform. It was more of a ceremonial thing really. That said, it was also functional and had some survival items in it. The most important one at that point was his Nanites which glowed golden against the sting of the sand storm he had transmatted into. They weren't acting as a shield as such but they were undoing any damage that the sand tried to cause Xander almost before it was done trying to damage him. Thus it made him glow slightly in the storm but not enough to block his vision. He walked forward he had deliberately transmatted down to co-ordinates that were a few miles away from the transmitted ones just in case of ambush.

He walked up to find an elderly Jaffa was waiting for him by a pillar that was sticking out of the sand and looked to be quite out of place. Then the old Jaffa held up a device and pressed a button. Rings leapt up around the two of them and Xander's side arm appeared as if by magic into his hand. The rings then transported them down out of the storm and into the middle of what, at first glance, appeared to be an ambush.

"Carter," a male voice snapped out even as Xander moved like a snake and curled an arm around the Jaffa's neck and pointed his side arm at his head.

"Master Bra'tac," a large man called out.

"Stay still big guy or I'll blow his head clean off," Xander purred dangerously. "Who the hell are you all, the communication said I was to meet Master Bra'tac here alone, there was no mention of extra company." Xander tightened his grip on the old Jaffa. "I really don't take too kindly in being led into an ambush."

A sandy haired man stepped forward with an engaging smile, "My name is Daniel Jackson, that's Teal'c and the woman to your side is Major Carter, and the man next to me is Colonel Jack O'Neil. We mean you no harm; we are simply here in support of Master Bra'tac."

Xander looked at them cautiously for a long moment. The guy that had talked, Daniel seemed to be sincere but then he had that sort of face that anything would seem sincere. The one that was likely in charge was the Colonel and he looked weather beaten and cynical, so it was no wonder the guy in glasses had done the talking. "Tau'ri?" Xander asked, flashing his eyes and speaking with the dual tone of the Goa'uld, he had no wish to have earthers knowing about him, especially the military who would sell their souls for his technology.

Daniel, who had just been thinking that the so called Goa'uld was not, took a sharp step back at the display. "Would you let go of Master Bra'tac please, we really are here only to talk."

Xander surveyed them and let his intellect fire over that one for a moment before finally letting go and stepping sharply back and leveling his weapon in their general direction.

The Jaffa Master rubbed his throat ruefully surprised at the strength shown or that any Goa'uld would lower themselves to physical violence as that was what they had Jaffa for after all. "We mean peace," he said croakily.

"Then I suggest you start talking I take it the Free Jaffa is in league with the Tau'ri."

"That's true," Bra'tac said with a slight smile, "As are the Tok'ra, but the question remains who are you in league with?"

"Myself and several billion Jaffa," Xander quipped back, his voice once again normal.

"Are you Goa'uld?" The Colonel asked finally stepping into the conversation now that things were moving along, "Because you sure as hell don't act like one."

"Do you not believe your eyes and ears," Xander asked carefully.

"After all I've seen in this crazy, crazy world?" O'Neil quipped.

"We are all individuals," Xander said, "Aren't the Tau'ri?"

"We wonder if you would be willing to form an alliance," Master Bra'tac asked in a straight forward way, as was his preference.

"I would," Xander said simply and lowered his side arm, "Depending on a few provisos."

"Such as," O'Neil asked.

"I am already standing guard at both Poc'Nah and Earth. I will protect both planets with my full might and I come and go as I please. I have one aim, to protect my people."

"That doesn't sound so bad," O'Neil said tentatively.

"As far as resources, I will not supply anything more advanced than a Ha'tak to you. My main fleet however; my main fleet remains mine alone."

"You have more than pyramid ships" O'Neil asked with a slight smile.

"I do, currently around earth there is a defense grid, under my direct control, that is protecting the planet and system."

O'Neil didn't look like he liked the thought of being surrounded by satellites under a so called Goa'ulds control. "Not a chance. I can't allow something as powerful and dangerous as that to be solely under the control of an unproven ally. Hell, we wouldn't allow something like this to be in place with an ally that has proven themselves," he said clearly.

"It is already done," Xander said calmly, "They are pointing into space Colonel; you need not fear."

"My commanders won't accept that, at the very least give us some control over them?"

Xander paused and thought that over, "I will give you access to the level that you can set the defenses into active mode, meaning they will fire on any ship that comes towards you with the exception of my own." He then held out his hand and concentrated on his wet works and sent a command to his awaiting carrier in space. A moment later, with a swirl of green lights, a controller appeared just over his hand and then dropped into it. He offered it to O'Neil with a slight smile, "This will activate the defense grid and make its teeth show."

O'Neil took it with some surprise showing, that had been almost too easy. He looked at the device; it was very simple and had a thumb sized panel on it which was what obviously set the grid into active mode. The weird thing was this Goa'uld had just handed it over.

"We'll talk about the sharing of technology later, I'm very curious about a few things and I have some items that may interest you."

"Such as," Carter said stepping forward slightly.

Xander pegged her as the scientist of the group easily, "For starters I can give you shielding for your command center."

Carter looked excited and smiled at him. It was a wonderful smile that Xander found himself responding to with a smile of his own.

"What of you Master Jaffa, what is it you require?" Xander asked, "I do wish to forge an alliance with you. It was the reason I came here," At he shot the members of SG1 a smirk before looking back at the old Jaffa while stressing, "Alone."

Master Bra'tac looked thoughtful, while ignoring the last part of that statement. "Currently I need very little; information would be useful as it is in any war."

"That I can provide," Xander said and did his wet works trick again this time a crystal appeared in his hand which he handed over to the Master Jaffa, "I have an Al'Kesh with your name on it also, which will take yourself and Jarlan wherever you wish to go. Or if you prefer I will clear out a Ha'tak?" Xander enquired.

"A Ha'tak, you're willing to give me a mother ship?" This was a marvelous boon for the movement.

"Consider it yours," Xander said and sent out mental commands, "It will be here shortly."

"You know where we are, in space, from a gate address," Carter asked. "The Coordinate system for a mother ship is totally different from the gate system. "

"It's not hard to work out," Xander replied. This was much to the amazement of Carter who was looking surprised. This appeared to be an intelligent Goa'uld that could work things out for his self and was not like the Tok'ra in that he was willingly sharing technology and information with them.

He was almost too good to be true.

"You look familiar, by the way," Daniel asked who had been studying the dark haired Goa'uld for some time, "Have we met before?" It was weird he felt that he knew him for some reason but didn't know why.

"Nope," Xander said with a smile, giving the SG1 team even more reason to wonder about him. He didn't talk much like a Goa'uld at all.

"If there are to be any further negotiations, I would say we need to talk with my direct commander, General Hammond." O'Neil said stepping forward and stopping the banter.

Xander nodded, "You wish to do so now?"

"We'd have to let you through the gate on earth as it is protected by an Iris," Carter put forth.

Xander reached into a pocket and pulled out a basic communications device, he had to trawl the database for the damn thing at that. It was a FTL capable radio basically so they could talk to him real time, he suspected that he would need one of these, luckily he had brought two going by the old adage that you will always need more than you have on you. He handed one to the gorgeous Major Carter and the other to the weathered and pockmarked Jaffa Master.

"For now, I bid you farewell." He said and trigged a transmat to his ship, pleased he had the last word and the looks on their faces had been classic.


End file.
